Trump didn't push me to support new oil and gas drilling, Swinney says
The SNP leader said the US President made his views clear during their dinner on Monday but did not actively press him to back fresh drilling in the North Sea.
Mr Swinney said he was aware of Mr Trump's posts on his social media platform urging the UK to lower taxes and drill.
On the last day of his five-day visit to Scotland, the American leader posted: 'North Sea Oil is a treasure chest for the United Kingdom.
'The taxes are so high, however, that it makes no sense.
'They have essentially told drillers and oil companies that, 'we don't want you'.
'Incentivize the drillers, fast. A vast fortune to be made for the UK, and far lower energy costs for the people!'
Mr Swinney had dinner with the President who was flanked at the table at Trump MacLeod House & Lodge – named after Mr Trump's Scottish mother, Mary Anne MacLeod Trump – in the Menie estate alongside Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer.
Asked if the President pressed Mr Swinney to back new oil and gas licenses during the two-hour event, the First Minister said: 'He didn't. He didn't press me to do that.
'He obviously expressed his view that there should be more oil and gas activity undertaken and I've seen material from the President this morning which raises issues about taxation, which of course, is not under my control.
'I don't have any influence over North Sea oil and gas taxation.
'Obviously the President made clear his view that he is not a supporter of wind turbines and I expressed the view that we have about our energy priorities on renewable energy.'
Mr Trump landed in Prestwick on Friday on Air Force One before travelling to his golf course in Turnberry, South Ayrshire.
On Monday, he and the Prime Minister were transported by Marine One to his golf course in Menie.
He opened up The New Course there on Tuesday shortly before leaving for Washington.
Mr Swinney had dinner with Mr Trump for around two hours where the First Minister made the case for exempting Scotch whisky from US tariffs, while a shorter discussion on Tuesday morning focused on what Mr Swinney said was the 'humanitarian catastrophe' in Gaza.
During his trip – his first since 2023 and first since winning re-election – Mr Trump repeatedly referred to Aberdeen as 'the oil capital of Europe'.
The US President campaigned on 'drill baby drill' during his election campaign last year.
He has been outspoken in his dislike of 'windmills', having taken the Scottish Government to court over an offshore wind farm near his Aberdeenshire estate.
Mr Trump said Scotland had the 'ugliest windmills I've ever seen', describing them as 'ugly monsters' that were 'destroying the beauty' of the country.
'Wind is a disaster,' Mr Trump said. 'Wind is the most expensive form of energy.
'When we go to Aberdeen you'll see some of the ugliest windmills you've ever seen.
'They're the height of a 50-storey building.
'You could take 1,000 times more energy from a hole in the ground. It's called oil and gas, and you have it in the North Sea.
'You are paying in Scotland, and the UK, and all over place, where they gave them massive subsidies to have these ugly monsters all over the place.'
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