President Donald Trump is taking a weekend getaway to his golf resorts in Scotland, despite the heat and controversies surrounding him. The White House has called the trip a “working visit,” but it’s fairly light on the formal itinerary. Trump is set to hold trade talks with the chief of the European Union and meet with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday. However, most of his time is expected to be spent out of public view at two of his golf resorts – Trump Turnberry in the west and Trump International about 200 miles away in the north, near his mother’s ancestral homeland.
Trump often speaks fondly of his ties to Scotland, the birthplace of his late mother, though the feeling has been far from mutual. His development of luxury golf resorts over the last two decades has ignited objections from many local residents. The centerpiece of this trip is a dedication and ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new 18-hole golf course in Aberdeenshire on the windswept coast of the North Sea. It’s named the MacLeod Course in honor of Trump’s mother, Mary Anne MacLeod, who was born in 1912 outside of Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis.
Authorities in Scotland have spent weeks preparing for Trump’s arrival, with Assistant Chief Constable Emma Bond telling reporters the security operation would be the largest the country has mounted since the death of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022. The overall tone toward Trump has been markedly less fond, however. The Friday edition of The National, a liberal-leaning newspaper that supports Scottish independence, rolled out a not-so-welcoming message to Trump with a blaring and bold front-page headline: “Convicted US Felon to Arrive in Scotland.” A group called Stop Trump Scotland, a coalition of demonstrators, organized protests at Aberdeen and outside the US consulate in Edinburgh as part of a “Festival of Resistance.”
As Trump arrives in Scotland, he eagerly anticipates meeting left-leaning Scottish First Minister John Swinney, who has been an outspoken critic and last year endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris. Trump has previously adopted a hostile attitude toward the European Union, claiming it was formed to “screw” the United States.
