Hundreds gather in Aberdeen and Edinburgh to protest Donald Trump
Demonstrators have gathered in Union Terrace Gardens with various placards, including several pointing out his previous friendship with disgraced paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.
See some pictures from the protest below as Scots voice their anger over the president's four-day visit to his Turnberry and Menie estates.
(Image: Nick Forbes/PA Wire) (Image: Nick Forbes/PA Wire) (Image: Nick Forbes/PA Wire)Scottish Greens MSP Maggie Chapman spoke at the demonstration, where she took a stance against Trump's comments on the genocide in Gaza and his general politics.
"We say 'no' to the genocide in Palestine, and we say 'no' any politician who says that their politics has to be built on hate, has to be built on division, and has to be built on enriching the billionaires while the majority of the rest of the world starve', Chapman said.
'Not in our name. Never in our name. That is why we are here today.'
Trump arrived at Prestwick Airport on Friday evening before heading to the Turnberry estate in South Ayrshire.
He is expected to visit his Menie estate before opening a new course dedicated to his mother, Mary Anne Macleod, who was raised on the Isle of Lewis.
READ MORE: Trump International to receive £180k from Scottish Government for tournament
Lewis residents have also taken a stance against the convicted felon, with vintage and home décor store Lewis Revival displaying a banner reading 'Shame on you, Donald John', signed by locals and tourists alike.
The business, based just miles away from his mother's birthplace, previously displayed the banner in March after Trump's meeting with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, though it was subsequently removed by the local council.
Elsewhere, protests have started in Edinburgh outside of the US Consulate.
Scottish Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie and MSP Ross Greer are set to attend the demonstration in the capital, after the party issued fresh calls for Trump's finances to be investigated by the Scottish Government through an Unexplained Wealth Order.
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Scotsman
30 minutes ago
- Scotsman
My day at Trumpfest - what it was really like having a box seat for Donald Trump's new golf course opening
Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... There is no press call like a Donald Trump press call, and right from the 5am departure from home, there was that familiar feeling of heading into the unpredictable world of the US President. As the morning broke on Mr Trump's fifth day in Scotland, where world politics, pledges and deals interlaced with the world of golf, there was a sense that anything could happen. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Trump International Golf Links Scotland is a place I have visited several times before and spent many hours traipsing around after Mr Trump, hoping for a sensible news line. The grand opening of the new course marks the end of Trump's Scotland visit. | Lisa Ferguson / The Scotsman READ MORE: Donald Trump opens new golf course in Aberdeenshire Once, back in 2016, I decided to hang back from the press pack, hide in a sand dune and run up to the presidential candidate as he tried to pot a ball in a desperate attempt to get a story. Despite my efforts, I failed to score a decent quote. Later, exhausted after hours of following Mr Trump over this stretch of rather challenging coastline, I lay on the grass and looked up to see him driving a golf buggy with Rupert Murdoch and Jerry Hall hanging off the back. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Times change, and of course Mr Murdoch was in 2025 nowhere to be seen as once close allies become potent foes amid the US President's lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal. On Tuesday at 6am, reporters mustered outside the evangelical King's Church in the Bridge of Don to catch coaches to Trump International Golf Links Scotland. After passports were checked by police, who also had our car registrations, we took our seats for the first stage of the show. At Menie, airport-style security scanners and Metropolitan Police awaited, but checks were super swift and super professional. It was a breeze compared to a morning flight at ABZ and we glided through to collect our accreditations, one which was marked White House Press Pool. I'll probably keep that one. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad A mini bus then took us to the heart of the golf course and the media centre, where a horrifying shortage of coffee and too few seats awaited. 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Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad That was possibly the most unpredictable moment of this finely orchestrated Trump show - and the President played on. A late bump in the order was soon felt as a security operation ramped up at the entrance to the course. A car was searched, but nothing suspicious found.
Scotsman
32 minutes ago
- Scotsman
Why John Swinney can learn valuable lessons about winning elections from new friend Donald Trump
Sign up to our daily newsletter – Regular news stories and round-ups from around Scotland direct to your inbox Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... 'I'm actually not in a good mood,' said Donald Trump, flatly, when asked about the prospect of striking a trade deal with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen. There was a ripple of nervous laughter among the assembled journalists and flunkeys at the Trump Turnberry golf resort on Sunday. Not in a good mood? He was supposed to be on his jolly holidays. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Trump wasn't laughing though – he was deadly serious. Was it the round of golf he had just played? 'No, the golf was beautiful, golf can never be bad,' he said, leaving it at that. Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, meets US President Donald Trump at Trump Turnberry golf resort in South Ayrshire | Getty Images Art Of The Deal Any number of things could have caused the famously mercurial president to be out of sorts. Maybe it was the weather, which had been blustery since his arrival in South Ayrshire on Friday evening, and may have helped land him in more bunkers than usual. Or perhaps it was the small but vocal gathering of protesters who made their feelings about him known as his motorcade swept past on its way from Prestwick Airport. More likely, perhaps, is that Trump's claim to be in a bad mood was a ploy – all part of The Art Of The Deal he aimed to strike that day. If this was the case, he was successful. After little more than an hour, it emerged von der Leyen had made huge concessions for no discernible gain. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Humiliation for Europe The European Commission had accepted a baseline 15 per cent tariff on most EU goods, agreed to buy $750 billion of US gas, and procure billions more of American military equipment. It was an entirely one-sided framework agreement that represented a big win for the US and abject humiliation for Europe. Trump's spirits were surely lifting. But next to arrive at the court of King Donald was that limey stiff Sir Keir Starmer, who had just introduced new laws on policing the internet, described by critics as censorious government over-reach and an attack on free speech. This came as news to Trump, when told by a reporter at Monday's press conference with the Prime Minister that there were 'new powers to censor your site'. 'To censor my site?' he asked. 'You mean Truth Social?' Suddenly it felt rather tense again, but this time the president was able to lighten the mood. 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Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad He even offered some unsolicited advice on how to win elections to two 'good men' at opposite ends of the political spectrum, Starmer and Reform leader Nigel Farage. 'I happen to like both,' he said. Another political leader looking for advice on winning elections could be some guy called John Swinney, next on the guest list after Trump's flight to his other resort in Aberdeenshire. The First Minister had just set out a highly ambitious plan to claim a mandate for a second independence referendum: emulating predecessor Alex Salmond's 2011 success by winning an SNP majority at Holyrood in next year's election. The meeting did not augur well. Swinney openly backed Trump's Democrat rival Kamala Harris in November's presidential election and had been highly critical of the US leader on foreign policy. 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And, in spite of their differences, perhaps there are things John could usefully learn from Donald. Whatever we think of him, and despite his many significant flaws, Trump is a phenomenally successful politician. Less than a year into his second term, he is already a major historical figure. His tariffs have not crashed the American economy, US stocks are at record highs, and Trump is polling relatively well, with the Democrats scoring their lowest rating for 35 years in a Wall Street Journal survey last week. US President Donald Trump walks on the course followed by a pipe band at the ribbon-cutting ceremony of a new course at Trump International Golf Links in Balmedie near Aberdeen | Getty Images At his marathon Turnberry press conference, Trump offered this advice on winning elections: 'Politics is pretty simple… Generally speaking, the one who cuts taxes the most, the one who gives you the lowest energy prices and the best kind of energy, the one who keeps you out of wars… You have a few basics and you can go back a thousand years, a million years, and whoever does these things…' Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad He could also have added sticking with the 80 side on issues that divide the public roughly 80-20. Maybe it's populism, maybe it's being in touch with the electorate, or maybe it's a combination of the two.
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Trump's most trusted advisors? His TV — and sometimes Melania
The President of the United States sits atop a vast apparatus of intelligence collection and information gathering that can harness the country's full technological and diplomatic might to bring him the latest and most accurate information on any given topic. He can request satellite photographs that show startling details of almost anywhere in the world that isn't covered. He can ask for 'signals intelligence' gleaned from surveillance of the world's telecommunications networks — or from the latest dispatches from spies located in far-flung spots where most Americans would not dare to tread. But as Donald Trump has shifted his positions on a pair of major foreign policy matters — the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza and America's support for Ukraine in their defense against Russia — he hasn't turned to his cabinet for counsel or really anyone in his administration for information. Instead, the president has been moved to action by two prime drivers: the same grim images of destruction and death on his television screen that have caused even the most strident of voices to acknowledge the stark human toll exacted by war in each region, and the counsel of perhaps his closest, if unofficial, advisor — first lady Melania Trump. In the case of Gaza, Trump came into office buoyed by the success of his hand-picked Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, in brokering a temporary ceasefire deal with the help of his counterpart from the outgoing Biden administration. But that ceasefire soon collapsed as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu resumed his offensive against Hamas and choked off all humanitarian aid to the besieged enclave while driving the Gazan population into smaller and smaller territory. During Netanyahu's first visit to the White House in February, the president stoked fears of ethnic cleansing long held by pro-Palestinian groups when he suggested having the U.S. take control of Gaza and relocate the Gazan population to multiple smaller sites that would be constructed and funded by 'neighboring countries of great wealth' and located in 'other countries of interest with humanitarian hearts.' Over the next few months, he largely left Netanayahu to his own devices as the Israeli leader continued to prosecute the war as a way to placate extremist voices in his cabinet who threatened to destabilize his government if he accepted any manner of ceasefire agreement. But over the last few days, Trump has joined the chorus of leaders who are now loudly calling for Netanyahu to stop cutting off most aid to Gaza, citing disturbing images and stories of starvation that have broken through into even the most conservative of pro-Israel of news sources. During a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer on Monday, Trump said Israel bore a 'lot of responsibility' for what he described as 'real starvation' in the territory, directly contradicting Netanyahu's insistence that nothing of the sort has taken place. Trump added that the images and reports emerging from the enclave 'cannot be faked'. And when asked if he agreed with the Israeli leader's remarks about concerns of mass starvation in Gaza being overstated, he replied: "I don't know. I mean, based on television, I would say not particularly because those children look very hungry." It wasn't the first time the president had been moved to action by images of children in peril delivered by his favorite form of entertainment. Months into his first term, in April 2017, he addressed reporters about images of carnage from the now-defunct Assad regime's use of chemical weapons — Sarin nerve gas — against the town of Khan Sheikhun. 'I will tell you that attack on children yesterday had a big impact on me – big impact,' Trump said while speaking in the White House's rose garden, just steps from the Oval Office. 'My attitude toward Syria and Assad has changed very much … You're now talking about a whole different level.' 'When you kill innocent children, innocent babies, babies, little babies, with a chemical gas that is so lethal – people were shocked to hear what gas it was. That crosses many, many lines, beyond a red line, many, many lines,' he added. Days later, he ordered a series of cruise missile strikes against targets in Syria, his first use of military force since assuming office three months earlier. Trump also appeared to reverse himself on a foreign policy matter earlier this month when he overrode top Pentagon officials who'd put a hold on American weapons shipments bound for Ukraine, citing images transmitted out of Kyiv in the aftermath of Russian drone attacks against civilian targets such as apartment buildings. A Trump administration official who spoke to The Independent on condition of anonymity said the president makes decisions based on what he believes to be the best information available to him at any given time and said his invocation of horrific televised images shows he cares about protecting children. 'He's a grandfather, he's a family man, and images of hurt or starving children anger him just as much as any in the country who has a heart,' they said. Trump's reversals on aid to Ukraine and on the need for Israel to allow more food into Gaza have another factor in common. In each case, the president has acknowledged the influence of First Lady Melania Trump in his decision-making process. When he ordered the Pentagon to resume shipping defensive weapons to Kyiv this month, he described a conversation he'd had with his Slovenian-born wife following a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin. "I go home, I tell the first lady, 'I spoke to Vladimir today, we had a wonderful conversation.' And she says, 'Oh really? Another city was just hit,'" he said. And on Tuesday as he returned to Washington aboard Air Force One, he told reporters that his wife thinks the situation in Gaza is 'terrible.' 'She sees the same pictures that you see, that we all see, and I think everybody, unless they're pretty cold hearted, or worse than that, nuts, there's nothing you can say other than it's terrible when you see the kids,' he said. Megan Mobbs, the daughter of Trump's Ukraine envoy General Keith Kellogg, told The Telegraph that when it comes to the First Lady, Trump 'deeply values her counsel.' 'They have a very, open, conversational relationship and she is one of his closest advisers,' said Mobbs, who currently lives in Kyiv running the RT Weatherman Foundation humanitarian mission. The former model's influence on the president might come as a surprise given that unlike most who've filled the unpaid, unofficial role of first lady, Mrs. Trump is understood to spend most of her time in New York, where she and the president's son, Barron Trump, attends NYU. The White House would not discuss the first lady's schedule or whereabouts, but a source close to the president cautioned against discounting her influence based on where she may or not be on any given day.
