Trade on agenda as Trump lands in Scotland for diplomacy and golf
US President Donald Trump boards Air Force One bound for Scotland. Photo / Getty Images
He said the meeting would be 'more of a celebration than a workout', appearing to row back on previous comments that a bilateral trade deal struck in May needed 'fine tuning'.
'The deal is concluded,' he told reporters on the tarmac at Prestwick.
But the unpredictable American leader appeared unwilling to cede to a UK request for reduced steel and aluminium tariffs.
Trump has exempted British exports from blanket 50% tariffs on both metals, but the fate of that carve-out remains unclear.
'If I do it for one, I have to do it for all,' Trump said in Washington before embarking on his flight, when asked if he had any 'wiggle room' for the UK on the issue.
The international outcry over the conflict in Gaza may also be on the agenda, as Starmer faces growing pressure to follow French President Emmanuel Macron and announce that Britain will also recognise a Palestinian state.
Protests
Trump is due to return to the UK in September for a state visit – his second – at the invitation of King Charles III, which promises to be lavish.
During a 2023 visit, Trump said he felt at home in Scotland, where his mother Mary Anne MacLeod grew up on the remote Isle of Lewis before emigrating to the United States at age 18.
'He's original, he does things the way he wants to. I think a lot of our politicians could take a good leaf out of his book,' 45-year-old Trump fan Lisa Hart told AFP as she waited to see his plane touch down.
But the affection between Trump and Scotland is not always mutual.
In this photo from February 2000, Donald Trump (left) – a real estate developer at the time – and his future wife, former model Melania Knauss, financier Jeffrey Epstein (now deceased) and Ghislaine Maxwell pose at the Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida. Epstein and Maxwell were in later years convicted of sex trafficking offences. Photo / Getty Images
Residents, environmentalists and elected officials have voiced discontent over the Trump family's construction of a new golf course, which he is expected to open before he departs the UK on Tuesday.
Police Scotland, which is bracing for mass protests in Edinburgh and Aberdeen as well as close to Trump's golf courses, have said there will be a 'significant operation across the country over many days'.
Scottish First Minister John Swinney, who will also meet Trump during the visit, said the nation 'shares a strong friendship with the United States that goes back centuries'.
Trump has also stepped into the sensitive debate in the UK about green energy and reaching net zero, with Aberdeen being the heart of Scotland's oil industry.
In May, he wrote on his Truth Social platform that the UK should 'stop with the costly and unsightly windmills' as he urged incentivising drilling for oil in the North Sea.
US discontent
The trip to Scotland puts physical distance between Trump and the latest twists in the case of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the wealthy financier accused of sex trafficking who died in prison in 2019 before facing trial.
In his heyday, Epstein was friends with Trump and others in the New York jet-set, but the President is now facing backlash from his own Maga supporters who demand access to the Epstein case files.
Many support a conspiracy theory under which 'deep state' elites protected rich and famous people who took part in an Epstein sex ring. But Trump is urging his supporters to move on from the case.
The Wall Street Journal, which published an article detailing longstanding links between Trump and the sex offender, is being punished by the White House.
Its reporting team plan to travel to Scotland on their own and join the White House press pool but it has now been denied a seat on Air Force One for the flight home.
While Trump's family has undertaken many development projects worldwide, the President no longer legally controls the family holdings.
However, opponents and watchdog groups have accused him of having many conflicts of interest and using his position as US President to promote private family investments, especially abroad.
– Agence France-Presse
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