(Bloomberg) — President Donald Trump opened the second course at his sprawling golf estate in eastern Scotland, publicly endorsing one of his high-profile properties after meeting with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and hammering out a trade deal with the European Union.
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“The area has really welcomed us,” the president said Tuesday at Trump International Scotland, near Aberdeen. “At the beginning, it wasn’t quite a welcome, but it wasn’t bad. But with time, they’ve liked us more and more. Now they love us and we love them.”
During a six-minute speech to guests assembled in a grandstand near the first tee, Trump also nodded to his presidential duties before hitting the first tee shot. “I look forward to playing it today. We’ll play it very quickly, and then I go back to DC,” Trump said. “We just stopped about five wars, so that’s much more important than playing golf. “
Trump then cut a red ribbon with a pair of scissors and hit a drive into the fairway, setting out to play the course’s first official round with his son, Eric, and former professional golf tour players Paul McGinley and Rich Beem.
Tuesday’s event marked one of the starkest examples yet of how Trump has mixed his official duties with his family’s business interests. He’s repeatedly blurred the lines, holding fundraisers and press conferences at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida and hosting LIV Golf tournaments in his courses in New Jersey and Virginia bankrolled by Saudi Arabia’s public investment fund.
Make America Great Again hats have appeared along course-branded attire inside the pro shops at Trump’s properties at Turnberry and Aberdeen. Campaign anthems, including Michael Jackson’s Thriller and the Village People’s YMCA, played over loudspeakers at Tuesday’s event and red, white and blue fireworks were fired off the first fairway.
The ceremony capped a five-day private trip funded by US taxpayers. White House officials dismissed the notion that Trump’s visit amounted to a conflict of interest. The president handed over management of his company when he retook office and his assets were placed in a trust managed by his children, an arrangement ethics groups said still posed conflicts.
“Donald J. Trump has built the best and most beautiful world-class golf courses anywhere in the world, which is why they continue to be used for prestigious tournaments and by the most elite players in the sport,” spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said in a statement ahead of the trip, which noted Trump’s plans to meet with Starmer.
Trump also met with Scottish First Minister John Swinney before the grand opening, according to the White House.
Guests expected to attend included a mix of relatives, dignitaries and sports luminaries, such as Swinney; US Ambassador to the UK Warren Stephens; DP World Tour Chief Executive Officer Guy Kinnings; former football stars Robbie Fowler and Andriy Shevchenko; and former US Open winner Michael Campbell.
Although the president is ostensibly in the UK to check out his two golf properties — he arrived at Turnberry in the west of Scotland on Friday — he reached an agreement with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen for the US to place a lower 15% tariff on the bloc, and discussed the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, the war in Ukraine and trade with Starmer.
Trump’s visit to Scotland, the birthplace of his mother, comes as he navigates discord at home over his administration’s handling of documents related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. He’s also enmeshed in a drawn-out fight with Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell over interest rates and the central bank’s headquarters renovation, while Trump’s tariff deadline expires Aug. 1.
The new course at Menie will be named after Mary Anne MacLeod, Trump’s Gaelic-speaking mother who emigrated to the US as a teenager from Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis. It’ll complement the Old Course, which opened in 2012, and — according to Trump International’s marketing material — together they will form “The Greatest 36 Holes in Golf.” The slogan appeared on signs around the property on Tuesday.
Adding another upmarket 18 holes in Scotland won’t necessarily endear the president to the locals, few of whom care to spend hundreds of pounds knocking a ball around the links. The event also serves as a reminder to many Scots that his initial foray into Aberdeenshire in 2006, when he was hardly known in the UK, was rife with controversy.
The project promised more jobs than it delivered, Trump bullied local residents who didn’t want to move home, while environmentalists were angered when the nearby sand dunes lost their status as a Site of Special Scientific Interest. In 2012, Trump appeared at the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh to try to halt a wind farm that he said was a blight on the view from his golf course.
Expanding Trump International represents another addition to the list of premier golfing destinations along the country’s east coast, ranging from Open Championship courses such as Muirfield to bucket-list venues like St. Andrews and Royal Dornoch. Other top-dollar sites are also getting upgrades — Carnoustie is revamping its hotel and Cabot Highlands is adding another course.
–With assistance from Hadriana Lowenkron.
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