EDINBURGH, Scotland\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Lashed by cold winds and overlooking choppy, steel-gray North Sea waters, the breathtaking sand dunes of Scotland\u2019s northeastern coast rank among President Trump\u2019s favorite spots on Earth.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt some point, maybe in my very old age, I\u2019ll go there and do the most beautiful thing you\u2019ve ever seen,\u201d Trump said in 2023, during his New York civil fraud trial, talking about his plans for future developments on his property in Balmedie, Aberdeenshire.<\/p>\n
At 79 and back in the White House, Trump is making at least part of that pledge a reality, landing in Scotland on Friday as his family\u2019s business prepares for the Aug. 13 opening of a golf course bearing his name. <\/p>\n
Trump will be in Scotland until Tuesday, and he plans to talk trade with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.<\/p>\n
The Aberdeen area is already home to another of his courses, Trump International Scotland, and the Republican president is also visiting a Trump course near Turnberry, about 200 miles away on Scotland\u2019s southwest coast. Trump said upon arrival Friday evening that his son is \u201cgonna cut a ribbon\u201d for the new course during his trip. Eric Trump also went with his father to break ground on the project back in 2023. <\/p>\n
Using a presidential overseas trip \u2014 with its sprawling entourage of advisors, White House and support staffers, Secret Service agents and reporters \u2014 to help show off Trump-brand golf destinations demonstrates how the president has become increasingly comfortable intermingling his governing pursuits with promoting his family\u2019s business interests.<\/p>\n
The White House has brushed off questions about potential conflicts of interest, arguing that Trump\u2019s business success before he entered politics was a key to his appeal to voters.<\/p>\n
White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers called the Scotland swing a \u201cworking trip.\u201d She added that Trump \u201chas 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.\u201d <\/p>\n
Tee times for sale<\/p>\n
Trump went to Scotland to play his Turnberry course during his first term in 2018 while en route to a meeting in Finland with Russian President Vladimir Putin. But this trip comes as the new golf course is already actively selling tee times.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re at a point where the Trump administration is so intertwined with the Trump business that he doesn\u2019t seem to see much of a difference,\u201d said Jordan Libowitz, vice president for the ethics watchdog organization Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, known as CREW. \u201cIt\u2019s as if the White House were almost an arm of the Trump Organization.\u201d<\/p>\n
During his first term, the Trump Organization signed an ethics pact barring deals with foreign companies. An ethics framework for Trump\u2019s second term allows them.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s assets are in a trust run by his children, who are handling day-to-day operations of the Trump Organization while he\u2019s in the White House. The company has inked many recent lucrative foreign agreements involving golf courses, including plans to build luxury developments in Qatar and Vietnam, even as the Trump administration negotiates tariff rates for those countries and others. <\/p>\n
Past legal fights<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s existing Aberdeenshire course has a history nearly as rocky as the area\u2019s cliffs.<\/p>\n
It has struggled to turn a profit and was found by Scottish conservation authorities to have partially destroyed nearby sand dunes. Trump\u2019s company also was ordered to cover the Scottish government\u2019s legal costs after the course unsuccessfully sued over the construction of a nearby wind farm, arguing in part that it hurt golfers\u2019 views.<\/p>\n
The development was part of the massive civil case, which accused Trump of inflating his wealth to secure loans and make business deals. <\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s company\u2019s initial plans for his first Aberdeen-area course called for a luxury hotel and nearby housing. His company received permission to build 500 houses, but Trump suggested he\u2019d be allowed to build five times as many and borrowed against their values without actually building any homes, the lawsuit alleged.<\/p>\n
Judge Arthur Engoron found Trump liable last year and ordered his company to pay $355 million in fines \u2014 a judgment that has grown with interest to more than $510 million as Trump appeals. <\/p>\n
Weissert writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Chris Megerian in Washington contributed to this report. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EDINBURGH, Scotland\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Lashed by cold winds and overlooking choppy, steel-gray North Sea waters, the breathtaking sand dunes of Scotland\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39134,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[31869,31867,28,31868,12530,3006,31863,427,31865,31864,15652,9121,99,5753,3479,31866,3123],"class_list":["post-39133","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-aberdeenshire","tag-blurs-politic","tag-business","tag-business-interest","tag-deal","tag-family","tag-foreign-company","tag-golf","tag-least-part","tag-new-golf-course","tag-plan","tag-scotland","tag-sports","tag-trip","tag-trump","tag-trump-organization","tag-white-house"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39133","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39133"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39133\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39134"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39133"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39133"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39133"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}