Trump golfs in Scotland as Epstein questions persist

West Australian

2 days ago

US President Donald Trump kept a low profile on his Scottish golf course, ahead of meetings with top British and European leaders, as questions swirled at home about his ties to disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Trump arrived in Scotland on Friday night, with hundreds of people on hand to watch the arrival in Glasgow of Air Force One, the presidential aircraft.
He told reporters that he will visit his two golf properties in Scotland - one in Turnberry on the west coast, where he is playing on Saturday and the other near Aberdeen.
He is also due to meet British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Scottish leader John Swinney and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, whom he called a "highly respected woman".
Frustrated by continued questions about his administration's handling of investigative files related to Epstein's criminal charges and his 2019 death in prison, Trump told reporters to focus on bigger issues and other people.
"You make it a very big thing over something that's not a big thing," Trump said.
"Don't talk about Trump. What you should be talking about is the fact that we have the greatest six months in the history of a presidency."
Trump was spotted on the golf course on Saturday morning, but he had no public events scheduled.
Dressed in black, with a white cap that said USA on it, Mr Trump could be seen driving a golf buggy, flanked by a fleet of security personnel.
Reporters and supporters were kept away.
Protests took place in Aberdeen and Edinburgh, hundreds of kilometres away.
The White House said Trump was golfing on Saturday with his son, Eric, and the US ambassador to Britain, Warren Stephens, and his son.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was also on the course.
Hundreds gathered in both Edinburgh and Aberdeen - near the site of Mr Trump's other Scottish golf resort - to make their opposition to the president known.
In Aberdeen, Scottish MP Maggie Chapman told the crowd of hundreds: "We stand in solidarity not only against Trump but against everything he and his politics stand for".
"He is not welcome in Scotland, he is certainly not welcome in Aberdeenshire," she said.
Another protester, Anita Bhadani, hailed the "carnival of resistance" and said Trump's "huge promises" of creating thousands of jobs through development around his Scottish golf courses had not come to pass.
Trump bought the Turnberry property, which includes a hotel and golf course, for $US60 million ($A90 million) in 2014, in the hope of returning the course to the rotation for the Open Championship, but said his visit was "not about that".
Turnberry has been the site of the golf major four times, the most recent being in 2009.
It has not hosted the event since then, amid concerns about the lack of accommodation and infrastructure for an event that draws hundreds of thousands.
The Scottish government has flagged £180,000 ($A363,108) of public money to support a tournament at the Trump International golf links in Aberdeenshire, citing a tourism and economic boost.
The 2025 Nexo Championship, previously known as the Scottish Championship, is set to take place there next month.
But Scottish Green co-leader Patrick Harvie likened the awarding of public cash to the tournament to "handing some pocket money to the school bully".
Trump will travel in the coming days to his property near Aberdeen, where he will open a second course named after his mother, Mary Anne MacLeod, who was born and raised on a Scottish island before emigrating to the United States.
White House officials hope some time out of the limelight will allow the Epstein controversy to die down, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
with PA