The two men spoke about tariffs on Scotch whisky and the situation in Gaza. They also posed for photographs in front of a saltire and the Stars and Stripes.
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In a short speech to the assembled dignitaries and guests before cutting the ribbon on the first tee, Mr Trump asked Mr Swinney to stand up.
“The First Minister is here. John, would you stand up? John Swinney is a terrific guy who loves golf, loves the people of this country, and we really appreciated it. Thank you for everything, John.”
‘John Swinney is a terrific guy and loves golf, and loves the people of this country’
As he opens his new golf course in Aberdeenshire, Donald Trump praises the First Minister
𝘝𝘐𝘋𝘌𝘖: 𝘕𝘦𝘸𝘴𝘲𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘵 pic.twitter.com/siLsdaOqyO
— The Herald (@heraldscotland) July 29, 2025
The sector believes the tariff costs £4 million per week. The president was first asked about whisky tariffs by journalists at his Ayrshire golf course on Monday, where he appeared not to know there was an issue.
“We’ll talk about that, I didn’t know whisky was a problem,” Mr Trump said.
Speaking to reporters after the opening, Mr Swinney said Mr Trump had appeared receptive to the argument that Scotch whisky deserved a specific exemption due to its unique status.
“I’ve set out an argument about the unique character and identity of Scotch whisky. It can only be produced here. It can’t be manufactured produced anywhere else, because it can’t then be Scotch whiskey.
“So I’ve set that out, and President Trump has listened to the arguments I’ve put forward.
“I’ve also injected into that discussion an interesting point that was put to me when I was in New York in April by the Kentucky bourbon industry, who have quite a lot of cooperation with the Scotch whisky industry.”
(Image: Colin Mearns/NQ)
While Mr Trump did not commit to removing the tariff, Mr Swinney said he had encouraged further talks. “He concluded our discussions this morning by saying to me that I should follow up the issues we had discussed,” the First Minister said, adding that he had already begun conversations with the US Ambassador to the UK.
Mr Swinney said he used the meeting to urge Mr Trump to push for a ceasefire in [[Gaza]], describing him as “perhaps about the only person in the world that the Prime Minister of Israel might listen to.”
“I implored the president to use his influence,” Mr Swinney told reporters. “The humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza is long, long, long overdue.”
He added that Trump was aware of the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza.
The First Minister said he relayed a conversation he had with a church minister from his own constituency, who had preached on Sunday about praying for Mr Trump to intervene in the crisis.
“I told President Trump that this morning to give him a sense of the visceral agony people in Scotland are facing looking at these images.”
Mr Swinney faced questions about whether his meeting with Mr Trump risked undermining his government’s values.
Mr Swinney replied: “I think people in Scotland would generally think that if I, as First Minister of Scotland, have an opportunity to protect and promote the interests of Scotland to the President of the United States, I should take that opportunity.”
(Image: Colin Mearns/NQ)
Mr Trump was the first to tee off. He said he would have a quick game before returning to Washington to “put out fires all over the world”.
“We started with a beautiful piece of land, but we made it much more beautiful.
“The area has really welcomed us. If you remember at the beginning there wasn’t quite a welcome, but it wasn’t bad.
“But with time they liked us more and more, now they love us and we love them.”
Mr Trump added: “I look forward to playing it today.
“We’ll play it very quickly and then I go back to DC and we put out fires all over the world.
“We did one yesterday – you know we stopped the war. We’ve stopped about five wars.
“That’s much more important than playing golf. As much as I like it, it’s much more important.”
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During the ceremony, Mr Trump also spoke about Sean Connery’s support for his Menie course, saying the James Bond star’s backing helped overcome planning issues.
The President said: “This has been an unbelievable development.
“The land, they said it couldn’t get zoned, it was an impossibility.
“And Sean Connery said, ‘Let the bloody bloke build his golf course’.
“Once he said that everything came into line. John and I were talking about that last night.”
The First Minister, who at the time was a senior minister in the SNP government, insisted due process was followed.
He said the application had been called in due to a conflict between two Aberdeenshire council committees and was decided after a public inquiry conducted by “the most experienced reporter in Scotland at the time, Jim McCulloch.”
Mr Swinney said he stood by the decision to approve the development, describing the second course unveiled this week as “magnificent.”