{"id":32496,"date":"2025-07-30T03:09:07","date_gmt":"2025-07-30T03:09:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/32496\/"},"modified":"2025-07-30T03:09:07","modified_gmt":"2025-07-30T03:09:07","slug":"golf-tournaments-180k-funding-not-an-attempt-to-butter-up-donald-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/32496\/","title":{"rendered":"Golf tournament’s \u00a3180k funding ‘not an attempt to butter up Donald Trump’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n The Government announced on Saturday, just days before the First Minister met\u00a0Trump, that \u00a3180,000 of public money would be spent to bring the Nexo Championship<\/a> to Scotland next month.\n<\/p>\n

\n Swinney said he had \u201ccourteous\u201d talks with Trump on Tuesday morning, ahead of the official opening of a second course in Aberdeenshire.\n<\/p>\n

\n Gifts were also exchanged ahead of the meeting, with Swinney giving the US president framed historic documents showing his family connections to Scotland, and a map of the Isle of Lewis.\n<\/p>\n

\n READ MORE:\u00a0Donald Trump’s golf course locked down amid reports of suspicious package<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n In return, Trump gave the First Minister an American bald eagle figurine.\n<\/p>\n

\n The leaders discussed the situation in Gaza<\/a> and tariffs on Scotch whisky, which\u00a0Swinney said the president appeared to be willing to move on.\n<\/p>\n

\n Speaking to the PA news agency, the First Minister said the tournament funding was not to curry favour with the president.\n<\/p>\n

\n (Image: PA)\n<\/p>\n

\n Asked if it was an effort to \u201cbutter up\u201d\u00a0Trump, he said: \u201cNo, I think what I was trying to do is to make sure that a tournament that was coming to Scotland could be properly promoted.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt\u2019s coming here, we\u2019ve essentially intervened to secure a tournament quite late in the day.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n Swinney added that the Government provides cash to the Royal and Ancient Golf<\/a> Club (R&A) in St Andrews<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cIf the principle is good enough for the R&A, it\u2019s good enough for Trump International,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n

\n Asked about his relationship with Mr Trump following his first face-to-face meetings with the leader, Swinney said there had been \u201cvery good and courteous\u201d conversations between the two.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cI think we talked well about the issues that matter to the people of Scotland,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cHe has a deep affinity with Scotland, so he\u2019s got a warmth and an empathy towards Scotland and he was interested in all the issues that I was raising about Scotland.\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cSo I think we had a very welcome opportunity to engage in dialogue and to build a relationship.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\n Asked if he believes that a positive relationship will continue into the future, the First Minister said he does, adding the president ended the meeting by urging him to contact the US administration should he wish to raise any issues.\n<\/p>\n

\n <\/a>\n<\/p>\n

\n \u201cI intend to take him up on that issue, because my job as First Minister of Scotland is to promote and protect the interests of the country and I can engage constructively with the president of the United States to do that,\u201d Swinney added.\n<\/p>\n

\n As well as a meeting early on Tuesday, the First Minister was also invited to a dinner on Monday evening at the [[Aberdeen]]shire club alongside Prime Minister\u00a0Keir Starmer<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n

\n Over a meal of langoustines and beef, the First Minister had his first face-to-face meeting with the US president \u2013 having spoken over the phone after his election win last November.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Government announced on Saturday, just days before the First Minister met\u00a0Trump, that \u00a3180,000 of public money would…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32497,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[5904,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-32496","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32496","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32496"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32496\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32497"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32496"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32496"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32496"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}