Balmedie, Scotland — President Trump arrived in Scotland Friday for a four-day non-public journey — his first to the U.Okay. since he was reelected. The White Home says he’ll meet with Prime Minister Keir Starmer throughout his go to to debate commerce, however he’ll even be opening a brand-new course on the Trump Worldwide Golf Hyperlinks.
Set on Scotland’s rugged northeast coast, it is a stunningly stunning location, and it is easy to see why Mr. Trump was eager to buy the location greater than a decade in the past and develop it right into a world-class golf membership.
However as CBS Information realized from talking with locals, many wrestle to separate the American president’s politics from his placing inexperienced.
David Milne purchased his previous Coast Guard look-out on the Aberdeenshire coast over 20 years in the past, and he nonetheless lives there as we speak. However since 2012, it has been proper in the midst of Trump territory, surrounded by lots of of acres of shifting sand dunes which have been meticulously sculpted into 36 holes that anybody can play a spherical on — for about $500.
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Milne is not comfortable about his new neighbor.
“It is all the time second-best to what was there initially,” he advised CBS Information. “After I got here in right here, this panorama was untouched … now it is only a golf course.”
Mr. Trump first bought the land in 2006, and through growth he provided to purchase among the neighbors’ locations, too, however Milne refused to promote.
In 2011, Mr. Trump mentioned he did not just like the look of Milne’s property anyway.
“Who cares,” the long run president advised the Golf Channel, pointing to Milne’s house. “We’re making an attempt to construct the best course on the earth. The home is ugly.”
Requested what the land means to himself and his household, Milne mentioned it was far more than only a patch of picturesque shoreline.
“Land is what Scotland is. Not simply financially, it is within the soul of the Scottish folks as properly. It’s the place we come from, and the place we return to,” he mentioned.
The go to to Scotland is a homecoming for Mr. Trump, too. His mom, born Mary Anne MacLeod in 1912, grew up on a the Scottish Hebridean island of Lewis. He named one in every of his programs in Aberdeenshire after her.
Mr. Trump has been met with protests on earlier visits, and vandalism at his golf programs has taken a political tone in latest months.
Tommy Campbell, a veteran labor union activist in Scotland, advised CBS Information he was planning to guide one other protest through the U.S. chief’s go to this weekend, with a transparent message for Mr. Trump:
“You aren’t welcome right here,” he mentioned. “The insurance policies that he represents are fully at odds with what we worth right here.”
A ballot carried out in February discovered round 70% of Scots have an unfavorable opinion of President Trump. Within the village close to his golf hyperlinks, CBS Information spoke with the members of a strolling membership, who maintain a grudge.
“The best way he handled the neighbors and property homeowners, I feel that influenced us all badly,” mentioned one girl.
However the course employs greater than 80 folks, and the White Home says it has had a constructive financial impression within the space.
One native man — a golfer — advised CBS Information the enterprise Mr. Trump has completed, “from a golf perspective, is incredible.”
“Not saying the protests will not be proper,” he added. “A few of the stuff, I might agree with the protesters, however I feel there is a time and a spot for it, and it isn’t on the golf course.”
Opinions about President Trump are a bit just like the climate in Aberdeenshire. However honest or foul — in true Scottish style — they’re unlikely to cease an excellent spherical of golf.
