DUP MP Ian Paisley has said Northern Ireland’s “good relationship” with Donald Trump should continue in the wake of his US election win.
The North Antrim MP spoke yesterday morning about his personal relationship with Trump which began when he met the tycoon in 2007 to encourage investment in a proposed luxury golf resort on the Causeway Coast.
The DUP politician later joined his late father, former DUP leader Ian Paisley at a meeting in New York.
The discussions followed the rejection of a £1billion golf course plan in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, after local councillors turned it down.
The Co Antrim plans failed to take off, while in 2014 another planned golf course at Runkerry near the Giant’s Causeway was halted when the businessman behind it, Dr Alistair Hanna, died and the site was purchased by global diagnostics firm Randox.
Rejecting suggestions that the President-Elect’s knowledge of NI was “superficial”, Mr Paisley said he has since met Trump “every year bar one” since the New York summit in 2007.
“I have had his family in Northern Ireland twice. My family have been with his family in the States on at least one occasion,” the MP told BBC Radio Ulster.
“He knows about Northern Ireland…knows people here. We have kept a good relationship with him over the last 10 years,” he said, adding it was “important” to continue positive relations with the President-in-waiting.
Mr Paisley – who revealed he received an email from Trump’s campaign team thanking him for his support over the past 18 months – dismissed concerns over Trump’s choice of insulting language during the election race.
“The bark is worse than the bite. We have seen that in his victory speech,” Mr Paisley said.
