{"id":170935,"date":"2018-07-14T02:57:57","date_gmt":"2018-07-14T06:57:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=170935"},"modified":"2018-07-14T02:57:57","modified_gmt":"2018-07-14T06:57:57","slug":"trump-back-in-scotland-ahead-of-putin-talks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/07\/14\/trump-back-in-scotland-ahead-of-putin-talks\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump back in Scotland ahead of Putin talks"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"The<\/a>
The last time Donald Trump travelled to Scotland was in 2016, hours after the Brexit vote and shortly after he became the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. (Photo<\/a>: Donald J. Trump\/Twitter<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

TURNBERRY, Scotland \u2014 A roving press conference. Reporters piling into golf carts and running along fairways trying to keep up. A protester scattering golf balls marked with swastikas.<\/p>\n

The last time Donald\u00a0Trump\u00a0travelled to Scotland was in 2016, hours after the Brexit vote and shortly after he became the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. He created a media maelstrom as he held court with the press, compared pro-Brexit voters to his own supporters and mixed campaigning with business promotion in a way that was signature\u00a0Trump.<\/p>\n

This time, his trip is likely to be less dramatic, as he spends the weekend out of the spotlight preparing for his high-stakes summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.<\/p>\n

Knowing\u00a0Trump, there’s likely to be some golf on the schedule as well.<\/p>\n

Trump\u00a0has long professed a special connection to Scotland, the land of his mother’s birth. He owns two championship-level golf resorts in the country, including the seaside Turnberry. But ever since he ventured into Scotland a dozen years ago,\u00a0Trump\u00a0has been losing money and waging battles with longtime residents, wind farms and local politicians.<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident\u00a0Trump\u00a0knows this country probably better than any president in recent history,\u201d\u00a0Trump’s ambassador to the U.K, Robert \u201cWoody\u201d Johnson, told reporters ahead of\u00a0Trump’s trip.<\/p>\n

Trump’s mother, born Mary McLeod, was born in Stornoway, a place\u00a0Trump\u00a0has described as \u201cserious Scotland.\u201d He says his mother adored the queen and the \u201cpomp and circumstance\u201d of events like royal weddings.<\/p>\n

\u201cAny time the queen was on television, my mother wanted to watch it,\u201d he told The Sun newspaper in an interview this week.<\/p>\n

But\u00a0Trump\u00a0has faced endless opposition as he’s worked to renovate the Turnberry resort on the west coast and expand\u00a0Trump\u00a0International Golf Links Scotland, in Aberdeen.<\/p>\n

David Milne, whose property overlooks\u00a0Trump\u00a0International Links, planned to mark the president’s visit the same way he did the last time\u00a0Trump\u00a0appeared: flying the Mexican national flag over his house within sight of the clubhouse to protest\u00a0Trump’s hardline immigration views.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe is the president of a country that is allies with us and we have to give a certain amount of respect to the office of the president, even if we think the incumbent is a complete idiot,\u201d said Milne. But, he added, \u201cIt would be better for a lot of people if he just stayed at home and saved the fuel.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anger at\u00a0Trump\u00a0has been especially hot in Aberdeen, where\u00a0Trump’s plans have been mired in controversy from the day the president bought the land in 2006. Neighbors have accused\u00a0Trump\u00a0of harassment and bullying to get them to sell land, and a local fisherman became a national hero of sorts when he refused to sell to\u00a0Trump, despite a $690,000 offer.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Trump\u00a0Organization was initially turned down for approval to build on legally protected dunes, but the Scottish government eventually granted permission because of a pledge to create around 6,000 jobs, a five-star hotel with 450 rooms and two golf courses worth 1 billion pounds ($1.3 billion). So far, only one course has been built along with a clubhouse and a boutique hotel with 16 rooms.<\/p>\n

Conservationists also claim the course risks damaging an important site of special scientific interest. And a few months before\u00a0Trump\u00a0clinched the Republican nomination, he lost a court fight to stop an offshore windmill farm near the North Sea resort.<\/p>\n

While\u00a0Trump\u00a0likes to brag about the properties \u2014 during a press conference at the NATO summit in Brussels he called Turnberry \u201ca magical place\u201d \u2014 they’ve also been losing money. A financial report filed by\u00a0Trump’s company with the British government last year showed it had lost millions of dollars on the two properties and losses had more than doubled in 2016 to 17.6 million pounds ($23 million). It was the third year in a row of losses. Revenue also fell sharply.<\/p>\n

Asked about the losses, The\u00a0Trump\u00a0Organization emailed a statement that pointed to Turnberry’s positives: \u201cTrump\u00a0Turnberry is one of the most spectacular properties anywhere on the world and we are incredibly proud of its continued success. The Ailsa, home to four Open Championships including the famous 1977 ‘Duel in the Sun’ was recently listed as #10 in the World by Golf Digest and #16 in the World by Golf Magazine.\u201d<\/p>\n

During his last visit to Scotland,\u00a0Trump\u00a0created a made-for-TV spectacle as he held a press conference at his course in Aberdeen. Reporters in golf carts followed\u00a0Trump\u00a0as he moved from hole to hole, holding court along the way. The event also doubled as an advertisement for the course, with\u00a0Trump\u00a0extolled its North Sea views as among \u201cthe great sights of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump\u00a0also spent the visit hailing Britain’s vote to leave the European Union, and drawing parallels between Brexit voters and the anger driving his own presidential campaign. That, despite the fact that Scotland voted against Brexit.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love to see people take their country back,\u201d he said at a news conference marking a $200 million-plus rehabilitation of Turnberry.<\/p>\n

Several dozen protesters demonstrated outside the resort but were kept at a distance from the candidate and course. But one man wearing a Turnberry fleece briefly interrupted the news conference by tossing a box of golf balls emblazoned with the Nazi logo.<\/p>\n

This time, anti-Trump\u00a0organizers planned a series of protests. Among them: a \u201ccarnival of resistance\u201d outside the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh on Saturday, expected to attract busloads of protesters from across the country. Other smaller demonstrations were also planned, including outside the president’s golf courses. Police Scotland have drafted 5,000 officers to provide extra security at a cost of up to 5 million pounds ($6.6 million).<\/p>\n

Kirsty Haigh of Scotland United Against\u00a0Trump\u00a0said, \u201cTrump\u00a0likes to talk up his Scottish connections, but we are going to show that his politics are not welcome here.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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