Trump's private Scotland visit poses diplomatic test for UK's Starmer

Business Standard

2 days ago

By Alex Wickham, Ellen Milligan and Freya Jones
Donald Trump arrived in Scotland on Friday evening for a private five-day visit of his mother's ancestral home, taking in two golf resorts he owns. UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer knows full well that when it comes to this US president, little is ever really private.
Trump's first trip to Britain since his reelection will see him travel to his estates at Turnberry on Scotland's picturesque west coast and Menie in Aberdeenshire. It comes only weeks before he crosses the Atlantic again on an official state visit to meet King Charles III in September. For Starmer, who will meet Trump in Scotland, it's not without its risks.
The two leaders have struck up an unlikely partnership this year, with Trump repeatedly commenting on their positive working relationship in spite of the premier's left-wing politics: 'for some reason, we get along,' he said alongside Starmer at the Group of Seven summit in Canada last month.
That relationship saw the UK land a relatively favorable deal on some US tariff measures compared to other nations, while the president has also moved slightly closer to London's view of the Russia-Ukraine war in recent weeks.
'I like your prime minister, who's slightly more liberal than I am, as you've probably heard, but he's a good man,' Trump told reporters upon arriving in Scotland on Friday. 'He got a trade deal done, and you know, they've been working on this deal for 12 years. He got it done. It's a good deal. It's a good deal for the UK.'
British officials are hoping they can navigate a series of potential pitfalls over the coming days to keep that delicate relationship intact.
'It's a difficult tightrope for Starmer to walk,' said Michael Martins, former political and economic specialist at the US Embassy in London and associate fellow at British Foreign Policy Group. 'No opportunity with President Trump comes without risk.'
Trump heads overseas at a moment when he is under siege from many of his own political allies at home over his administration's handling of documents related to the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. He's also waging a two-front fight with Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell over interest rates and renovation of the central bank's headquarters, as well as with international trading partners ahead of his Aug. 1 tariff deadline.
It is awkward for Starmer, a politician who prides himself on being a stickler for the rules and was elected to office last year on a promise to restore propriety to British politics, that he will take part in a visit that will publicize two of Trump's golf courses. For Trump, the visit is one of the starkest examples yet of his mixing of personal business with official duties. He's expected to attend the inauguration of a new course at his Aberdeen property, according to UK media reports.
'We're going to have, I believe, dinner at Turnberry with the prime minister,' Trump told reporters before departing the US. 'Then we're going to go to the oil capital of Europe, which is Aberdeen, and we're going to have lunches there. We're going to have a good time.' The White House has not said specifically if Trump will play golf.
Adding to potential pitfalls for Starmer is Trump's desire to see Turnberry host the Open championship, the world's oldest major golf tournament. That should in theory be a decision that is free from political interference, and yet British government officials have been quietly trying to make it happen, only to so far be rebuffed by the championship's organizers, according to people familiar with the matter, who spoke anonymously about closed-door conversations.
'I think they'll do that,' Trump said when asked about bringing the Open to Turnberry.
In Scotland, Trump dismissed concerns that the remote course would need to see significant infrastructure improvements to help with the large crowds certain to flock to the event. He noted the course had already been wired for television broadcasts and batted away questions about roads and train stations with a curt: 'I don't know what you can do.'
'All I can tell you is that it would be the best place anywhere in your country to have — there's no place like it,' Trump said.
Official government readouts of conversations between Trump and Starmer often cite the leaders discussing world affairs, but in reality they are often more meandering, as the president opines about various personal interests and pet peeves, British officials said. They include Trump's dislike of wind farms off the coast of his golf courses.
'You fly over and you see these windmills all over the place, ruining your beautiful fields and valleys and killing your birds,' Trump said. 'And if they're stuck in the ocean, ruining your oceans — stop the windmills.'
He also described Aberdeen, where he's expected to inaugurate a new golf course, as 'the oil capital of Europe.'
Of more immediate concern to the UK is its ongoing effort to persuade the Trump administration to modify the domestic-production requirements that are holding up a trade agreement to lower US tariffs on British steel. Trump said earlier this month he would 'refine' the deal he struck with Starmer earlier this year. The prime minister isn't quite so confident, downplaying the prospects of a breakthrough in an interview with Bloomberg on Thursday.
Asked if there was wiggle room on steel, Trump told reporters: 'not a lot, because if I do it for one, I have to do it for all.'
That aside, Starmer's aides are nervously awaiting other more typical dangers such as the possibility of anti-Trump protests in a country where the president has little popular support. When he visited London during his first term in 2018, an unflattering blimp depicting Trump as a giant baby was famously flown over the capital.
UK officials might prefer to take a safety-first approach and limit media access but are alive to the reality that Trump could easily choose to hold court with reporters without warning.
For Starmer, who is not a golfer, perhaps the worst outcome of all would be the president challenging him to a round in front of the cameras. If such a nightmare scenario arose, the premier would likely politely suggest a game of five-a-side football instead, and try to convince Trump to don the shirt of the Arsenal team he follows, a person familiar with Starmer's thinking said.