When it comes to geopolitics, there are mountains of things Donald Trump regards as natural. Indeed, as president, he has laid claim to many places on behalf of the United States and, occasionally, on his own behalf or that of his family and friends: Cuba, Greenland, Iceland, Canada, parts of Gaza and Ukraine, the Gulf of Mexico, Lake Ontario, the Strait of Hormuz, the Panama Canal, and bits and bobs of South America. In his mind – not a high bar, to be honest – all of these claims make sense.

So his comments during his visit to Ireland should be seen in that light. Asked about the controversy sparked by them his response was pure Trumpian autopilot: “I loved them ... I love my comments. I have always loved the people of Ireland, and it just seems to me that you have Northern Ireland and Ireland, and it would seem to me that one of the naturals of all time is put them together.” To be honest, I was half expecting him to make a pitch for a united Ireland as the 53rd state of America – the Golf State, perhaps.

Trumps’s approach to politics is the same as his approach to business: get on with it. I don’t know if he is across the details of the Belfast Agreement or if he had been briefed on the flight over. But he is aware of the provisions for a Border poll, even if he has no idea about the criteria required for triggering it. Still, his assorted commentary over Saturday and Sunday – and apparently he was the one who mentioned the subject first – can be summed up in that favourite mantra, “Get on with it.”

Of course, this being Trump,........

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