Trump tees off at his Turnberry resort as his five day private visit to Scotland begins
The president headed to his Trump Turnberry resort – which he bought in 2014 – after arriving in the country on Friday night.
On Saturday morning he was seen on the golf course there, wearing a white cap and driving a golf buggy.
Ahead of that, a large number of police and military personnel have been spotted searching the grounds at the venue in South Ayrshire.
Various road closures have been put in place, with limited access for both locals and members of the media.
Trump is staying at Turnberry for the start of a five-day private visit to Scotland which will see him have talks with both UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Scottish First Minister John Swinney.
With no talks apparently scheduled for Saturday, the president – a well-known golf enthusiast – appears to be free to play the famous Turnberry course.
However, protests have been planned, with opponents of Trump expected to gather in both Edinburgh and Aberdeen later on Saturday and the Stop Trump coalition planning what it has described as being a 'festival of resistance'.
As well as visiting Trump Turnberry, Trump will head to Aberdeenshire later in his visit and is expected to open a second course at his golf resort in Balmedie.
As he landed in Ayrshire on Friday, the president took questions from journalists, telling Europe to 'get your act together' on immigration, which he said was 'killing' the continent.
He also praised Starmer, who he described as a 'good man', but added that the prime minister is 'slightly more liberal than I am'.
Saturday will be the first real test of Police Scotland during the visit as it looks to control the demonstrations in Aberdeen and Edinburgh, as well as any which spring up near to the president's course.
The force has asked for support from others around the UK to bolster officer numbers, with both organisations representing senior officers and the rank-and-file claiming there is likely to be an impact on policing across the country for the duration of the visit.
Before the visit started, Swinney appealed to Scots to protest 'peacefully and within the law'.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
14 minutes ago
- The Independent
Democrats find it hard to move on when Biden and Harris keep hogging the spotlight
Donald Trump is President of the United States. Republicans control all three branches of government. And even as Democrats are planning to regroup and contest next year's midterm elections, the two people who many of them blame for last year's dismal election outcome simply will not go away. More than half a year after they left office after a single four-year term, former president Joe Biden and former vice president Kamala Harris are continuing to remain in the spotlight and allow Republicans to highlight their failures instead of letting their party move on and find a way to regain the support that was lost during their time in office. Harris, who lost all seven of the contested swing states in last year's election, recently announced an upcoming book that will focus on the 107-day campaign she waged against Trump after Biden withdrew from the 2024 race following his dismal debate performance last June. She also revealed that she won't enter the upcoming race to succeed California Governor Gavin Newsom, who must leave office in 2027 when his second four-year term ends, leaving open the possibility that she'll enter what is expected to be a crowded primary race for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination. Biden, whose 11th hour pardons of his family members and other political allies emboldened Trump to grant reprieves for the violent rioters who tried to prevent his 2020 loss from being certified, is still giving speeches in which he is attacking his predecessor-turned-successor, a stark contrast from how most former presidents have behaved after leaving office. At one such appearance, an address to the National Bar Association in Chicago on Thursday, he accused the Trump administration of 'doing its best to dismantle the Constitution,' giving right-wing media outlets plenty of fodder to use at a time when his party is trying to focus on the future and the current government's policy problems. And the president's son, Hunter Biden, is doing his best to stay in the headlines with a series of podcast appearances in which he casts blame for his father's exit from the race on a broad range of people — but not his father. The former Democratic ticket's refusal to fade away after a devastating electoral performance is ruffling feathers among party figures who are tasked with moving forward and figuring out how to escape from the wilderness in next year's midterms. A number of popular governors, including Illinois' JB Prizker and Kentucky's Andy Beshear, have been making the trek to early primary states with an eye towards 2028, and voters are increasingly eager to elect new faces rather than older establishment figures. Donna Bojarsky, a Democratic consultant, told The Washington Post that 'nobody' in the party is looking to go 'back to 2024' as they look for a way forward against the Republicans. 'The shadow of 2024 is long, and I think all perspectives in the mix believe we need something fresh,' she said. Another strategist Cooper Teboe, said the party's current predicament stems from a sclerosis that has taken hold on account of incumbents refusing to relinquish power to the next generation. 'The core reason the Democratic Party is in the position it is in today is because no new figures, no new ideas, have been allowed to rise up and take hold,' he said. But there is a group eager for Biden and Harris to remain part of the national conversation — Republicans. One GOP consultant who spoke to The Independent said Hunter Biden's recent profanity-laced podcast appearances and the former president's speeches are just what they need to keep his failures in the public eye as his party tries to regain the trust of voters. 'Hunter Biden is just what Democrats need more of going into the midterms,' he said, more than a bit sarcastically.
Reuters
15 minutes ago
- Reuters
VIEW Investors react to Kugler's resignation, firing of BLS commissioner
Aug 1 (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve said on Friday that Governor Adriana Kugler was resigning from the central bank effective Aug. 8. Separately, U.S President Donald Trump ordered that the commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Erika L. McEntarfer, be fired after data showed employment growth was than expected last month. COMMENTS: "Obviously, (Adriana's resignation) is a negative, and that'll probably continue to pressure the dollar. That's not a good sign, when someone resigns, unless there is a personal reason, there is always a question mark as to why. So the unknown factor of that usually adds to uncertainties. "Of course, you had a major revision in the employment numbers so it's a fact that Trump fired the Commissioner of Labour Statistics, basically questioning the accuracy of these numbers because of that huge revision that we had. So, anytime something like this happens, it always raises uncertainties." CHRISTOPHER HODGE, CHIEF US ECONOMIST, NATIXIS ,NEW YORK: 'The interim BLS Chief looks to be an accomplished technocrat, which is a great sign. Going forward, should the fidelity of the data be compromised, this would place the markets and Fed in a very precarious position. I would expect the Fed to rely more and more on the anecdotes it collects from the Beige Book. Her (Adriana Kugler's ) term was set to expire in January, so no great change in policy. I have not seen an indication that she is resigning in protest, but the timing is very curious' JODY CALEMINE, DIRECTOR OF ADVOCACY, AFL-CIO, WASHINGTON, D.C. 'Today was probably the last reliable jobs report we will ever see. This isn't good for anybody looking to see what's going on with the economy, not just for workers but for the business community in general.' 'This morning's jobs report was showing what was the first indicators of probably a coming recession…it's clear he fired her (McEntarfer) for issuing a jobs report he just didn't like.' On Kugler: 'The Fed board should be independent of the president, that's for sure. He (Trump) is wielding increasingly authoritarian control over different agencies, and clearly he wants to wield that control over the Fed. The markets have kept that impulse in check so far. He's increasingly out of control.' JUAN PEREZ, SENIOR DIRECTOR OF TRADING, MONEX USA, WASHINGTON: "The way (the market) is going to interpret (the departures) is in a very dollar-negative way." "No matter what the economic picture in the United States, the one thing that holds the U.S. dollar strong in the eyes of the world is the authority and the independence of the Federal Reserve. Whenever anything comes to potentially put that into compromise then that's when the U.S. dollar spirals down." "There will be an opening for the Trump administration to fill. It's likely he will choose somebody whose views on interest rates match his own. Then Treasury Secretary Bessent wants to have a list of possible replacements for the Fed Chair by the end of the year so, Trump is getting a bigger chance to appoint people whose views match his own." Regarding Trump's order to fire Erika L. McEntarfe, he said: "I don't like to see a bureaucrat fired just because the data that gets presented doesn't support the administration's policies. We have a president who believes the economy is strong and that interest rates should be cut . I have read nothing that suggests she was not doing a good job or conscientious. It's upsetting. We're killing the messenger here instead of trying to see what the data really says and go from there. I see no evidence that the numbers were ever manipulated. It wouldn't be big news today if it happened a lot. Certainly, it's unusual."
Reuters
15 minutes ago
- Reuters
Judge blocks Trump from fast-tracking deportations of immigrants paroled into US
Aug 1 (Reuters) - A federal judge on Friday blocked the Trump administration from fast-tracking the deportation of potentially hundreds of thousands of immigrants who were paroled into the United States under Biden-era humanitarian programs. U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb in Washington, D.C. said it served the public interest to put on hold the Department of Homeland Security's expedited removals for those who entered with temporary parole, rather than cause irreparable harm to immigrants by allowing them. Cobb also quoted a recent dissenting opinion by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor, in rejecting DHS' assertion of a substantial interest in carrying out President Donald Trump's policies, including the prompt removal of immigrants not entitled to stay. "This case presents a question of fair play," Cobb wrote. "This court will not endorse the radical proposition that the President is harmed, irreparably, whenever he cannot do something he wants to do, even if what he wants to do is break the law." DHS did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Expedited removals could allow immigrant parolees to be deported without hearings or lawyers. The lawsuit challenging them had been brought by three immigrant rights groups whose members included parolees subject to that process. "Over the last few months, immigrants who entered the country with parole have been living a nightmare," Ama Frimpong, legal director of one of the groups, CASA, said in a statement. "They can now sleep a little easier with the relief, however temporary it is, that this court decision has offered." Trump, a Republican, has sought to deport record numbers of immigrants, but complained that courts and existing laws get in the way. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers have in recent months arrested immigrants at courthouses, following a legal maneuver where immigration judges dropped people's cases so that they could be placed in expedited removal. Cobb was appointed to the bench by Democratic President Joe Biden. The case is Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights et al v Noem et al, U.S. District Court, District of Columbia, No. 25-00872.
