Police in Scotland braced for large-scale protests if Trump visits new golf course
The long-rumoured visit is not expected to include a meeting with King Charles, despite earlier suggestions the US president could meet the monarch at either Balmoral or Dumfries House in Ayrshire.
It is thought Trump will officially open a new 18-hole golf course at his resort on the North Sea coast at Menie, north of Aberdeen, being named in honour of his mother Mary Anne MacLeod Trump. He is not expected to visit London during the trip.
The assistant chief constable Emma Bond said on Wednesday: 'Planning is under way for a potential visit to Scotland later this month by the president of the United States. While official confirmation has not yet been made, it is important that we prepare in advance for what would be a significant policing operation.'
Preparations are already under way for a rare second state visit to the UK in September, which would involve a state dinner mooted for Windsor Castle and possibly an address to parliament by Trump.
Bond made clear Police Scotland was braced for large-scale protests. There were demonstrations in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen during Trump's last official visit as president in 2018, with protesters flying a paraglider over the site during his visit to Turnberry.
Controversy around his policies has escalated sharply since then. Various people have been arrested for allegedly causing criminal damage to holes and buildings at Turnberry earlier this year.
Trump has made numerous visits to his course in Aberdeenshire, which he bought as a small country estate and opened in 2012, and several trips to his far more prestigious resort at Turnberry in Ayrshire.
Mary Anne MacLeod Trump was born in Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis, and Trump has frequently claimed that has given him a close bond to Scotland. He has visited Lewis once and spent little over a minute in her former home.
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Trump and his son Eric broke ground on the MacLeod course at Menie in 2023 and it has since been completed. Eric Trump was in Scotland in March to inspect progress, when he also met John Swinney, Scotland's first minister.
Traditionally, US presidents are not offered state visits in their second term, but the political and diplomatic case for doing so this year, given the trade wars Trump has unleashed and his quixotic stance on Russia's war in Ukraine, is seen by Downing Street to be overwhelming.
It is thought the proposal for Trump to informally meet Charles in Scotland this month, something mooted in the letter officially offering him the state visit, was discarded after it become clear their schedules made such a meeting impossible.
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Blow me down, who would have thought it? Nicola Sturgeon, the nationalist former First Minister of Scotland, who has spent her entire political life fighting for Scottish independence and slagging off evil England, now says she's thinking of leaving her native land. And where does she plan to move to? Unbelievably, her destination of choice appears to be... evil England! More specifically, she hints strongly this week that the ideal place she would like to escape to, at least for a 'wee while', is my own native London – capital of the kingdom she has tirelessly campaigned to leave. 'This may shock many people to hear,' she says, 'but I love London... So, yeah, maybe a bit of time down there. Who knows?' But will she really find the capital as pleasant a place to live as she seems to imagine? Or will she find that in moving from her own party's Scotland to mayor Sir Sadiq Khan 's Labour London, she'll just be swapping one nightmare terror for another? 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Then there was the debacle over the former First Minister's crazy plan for gender self-recognition, which would have allowed male rapists to serve their time in women's prisons. Add Ms Sturgeon's little local difficulties with her husband and the police, and perhaps it's no wonder that she wants to make herself scarce for a while, away from the scene of all the destruction and chaos her party has wrought. But back to that question: will she really find London any better? If you'd asked me that a few years ago, I would have had no hesitation in saying it was the best place to live on the planet. I was fiercely proud of being one of the few London residents I know who was born and brought up in the capital, while most of my neighbours and colleagues were drawn to it by its job opportunities, innumerable amenities and other attractions. In the words of the wartime song, I used to 'get a funny feeling inside of me/ Just walking up and down/ Maybe it's because I'm a Londoner/ That I love London town.' But I can't say the same any longer. After nine years under Sir Sadiq Khan, in cahoots with my disastrous Labour council, shoplifters and fare dodgers abound, the streets reek of cannabis and deliveries left on my neighbours' doorsteps are stolen within minutes. Yet there's never a copper to be seen, except for those flashing past in their cars, with sirens blaring (perhaps to arrest someone suspected of tweeting something disobliging about Hamas). At the same time, driving and parking in London have become all but impossible for the rest of us, as Khan and his party's councillors carry on their war against motorists, with their Ultra Low Emission Zones, cycle lanes, Controlled Parking Zones, Low Traffic Neighbourhoods – hated by all except eco-zealots. 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