Representatives of all the North's main political parties have reacted negatively to the Ulster Unionist leader's threat to resign if the IRA does not begin decommissioning.
The Deputy First Minister, Mr Seamus Mallon of the SDLP, said Mr Trimble had informed him just two minutes before announcing his threat to the Assembly.
Mr Mallon said he did not have time to discuss with him the full implications of the resignation threat. "However I have made it clear in the past my view that unilateral deadlines rarely produce the outcome that they are intended to achieve," he said.
Mr Mallon said that while Mr Trimble's actions had not helped the future of the agreement, his efforts would continue to keep the institutions in place. "I believe the electoral results will show that within the community, people want this agreement to work, they want the institutions to work," he said. "I think they will also take the opportunity of letting people know that they are getting fed up with the way the institutions themselves have been used and abused for party political reasons."
Mr Peter Robinson, the deputy leader of the DUP, called on Mr Trimble to resign immediately and described the First Minister's threat as a "pathetic and cynical election stunt".
"It gave all the resonance of a leader in panic, someone who knows that the electorate is about to deliver a verdict and is already running before the electorate delivers," he said.
"If David Trimble wants to be taken seriously, and he isn't, by the unionist electorate, let him resign today."
Mr Robinson, whose party has two members on the Executive, said "our ministers would be very happy to resign along with him and his colleagues. Let him put his money where his mouth is."
Mr Martin McGuinness, Sinn Fein's chief negotiator, said Mr Trimble's threat to resign would not resolve the decommissioning issue. "His contribution to this has been wholly negative and now we have seen a disastrous announcement, an absolutely disastrous announcement," he said.
Instead of coming out fighting for the Belfast Agreement, Mr McGuinness accused the First Minister of embarking on a "wrecker's charter".
"This is an attempt by David Trimble to give the impression to some people within the unionist community that he is for the Good Friday agreement and to give the impression to other people within the unionist community that are opposed to the agreement that he is against it and will bring it down on the July 1st," he said.
"He intends to go forward at this general election effectively allowing the rejectionist unionist tail to wag the unionist dog."
Mr Sean Neeson, the leader of the Alliance Party, described Mr Trimble's threat as a "mistake".