Latest news with #Turnberry
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Jon Sopel says Keir Starmer is ‘cringe' for handing Donald Trump letter from King Charles
Former BBC presenter Jon Sopel has hit out at Keir Starmer for his 'cringe' presentation of a letter from King Charles to US president Donald Trump. The Labour leader presented Trump with an invitation from the monarch for a 'historic second state visit' to the UK in February earlier this year. The letter, partially obscured by Trump's hand, read: 'I can only say that it would be … pleasure to extend that invitation once again, in the hope that you … some stage be visiting Turnberry and a detour to a relatively near neighbour might not cause you too much inconvenience. An alternative might perhaps be for you to visit Balmoral." Trump called King Charles a 'beautiful man' in return. Sopel, 66, spoke about the gesture during an appearance at the Hay Festival, which has partnered with The Independent for a second year. 'I think that British diplomacy is very minimal,' he began, in conversation with Anushka Asthana. 'I think British diplomacy can be still quite subtle and clever. Now, was it clever or subtle for Keir Starmer to reach into his pocket and flourish a letter from the King? It was cringe. It was awful.' He continued: 'Downing Street was very happy they got what they wanted, but what did they get that was backable at the end of it? What commitment did they get from Trump at the end of it? But even then if Donald Trump said to you 'I'm going to lend you a hundred pounds but don't worry you don't have to pay me back.' Would you trust him? I'm gona say probably not so much.' It comes shortly after The News Agents host blamed the BBC's 'both sides-ism' for his departure from the network in 2022, after over 40 years with the broadcaster. 'I don't think the media is enabling [Nigel] Farage,' Sopel told panellists on The News Review hosted by The Independent's Helen Coffey, as they discussed the popularity of Reform. 'We have to report the surge in support for Reform. Maybe you could say a few years ago, too much attention was given to him – and indeed, the 'both sides-ism' I found at the BBC was one of the things that drove me out after many, many years.'
The Independent
10-05-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Trump was as desperate for a deal as Starmer – and here's why
On 24 June 2016 I stood on the 9th tee at Turnberry in Scotland. The fabulously manicured green was a 100 or so yards away – and beyond that was the lighthouse that makes this hole one of the most iconic in golf. But I wasn't here to play golf. It was the day after Brexit and Donald Trump – then just a presidential hopeful – had come to inspect his Scottish bits of real estate and make the case for this course to host The Open. But the Brexit vote had captivated him. He loved it for what it was and what it symbolised. If the boring old Brits could vote to leave the EU, then surely in a few months' time they could vote for me to become president, he reasoned with himself. On that day, he mused on the great deals the US would be able to make with Britain now that it was free from the shackles of Brussels. Well, the deal that has finally been delivered isn't great – and it's taken the best part of nine years. It's worth just arching an eyebrow here on the irony that the deal has been delivered by all those who argued against Brexit – Lord Mandelson, our ambassador in Washington, and Keir Starmer, the rock solid remainer – where a succession of pro Brexit PMs had failed. But from that day on 24 June, I would go on endless TV and radio programmes to opine that any future trade deal would be on America's terms. They held all the cards (to use one of Trump's favourite metaphors). We would need it much more than them; we would have to go cap in hand and accept an agreement on their terms. Cue spats about chlorinated chicken and hormone injected beef. There has been a lot of commentary since Trump and Starmer got on their crackly Transatlantic phone call (should someone tell them about Zoom or Teams?) to lavish praise on each other, whether this was a major capitulation by Starmer. But this is to miss a central point, which I have not seen argued on this side of the Atlantic, prone as we are to taking a Britcentric view of things. The fact of the matter is that in the last few weeks the calculus has shifted fundamentally. The raw politics of this is that Donald Trump needed this trade deal every bit as much as Keir Starmer. Maybe even more. And if you look at it through that end of the telescope you can see why, finally, the deal came together after all previous efforts had failed. Trump had started a war where it was beginning to look like he was the biggest casualty. Since the chaos of his self-styled Liberation Day, the news has gone from bad to worse, for him. The stock markets had cratered, the bond markets had gone a bit 'yippy' – to use the Trumpism that he deployed when he announced one of his many chaotic u-turns on the tariffs policy. Worse still were the GDP figures that came out on day 101 of his presidency, which showed that the US economy had actually shrunk in the first quarter of this year. Bosses of some of America's biggest companies had been to see him to warn that the US would soon be seeing empty shelves and prices soaring. He was told to stop his attacks on the Fed chairman, Jerome Powell, because it was further roiling the markets. But perhaps most critically of all, Donald Trump was seeing his own approval ratings crater. If you look at US polling data, there is normally a honeymoon period for incoming presidents, that tends to last until Labor Day in September. It is then, that things tend to go south. Trump's numbers, though, are already under water. I saw it when I was in Detroit last week and went to his thinly attended 100-day rally. Sure, those that were there still talked about him as being their saviour – but there was a wariness, uncertainty, a doubt that I hadn't seen before. And with good reason: all these people would have been looking at their 401Ks – their pension pots – and seen how mu h they had gone down in value since Trump had embarked on his trade war. So it can't be overstated how much Trump needed this too. He needed to show that there was more than just bombast and bluster behind his rhetoric. This deal will be weighed as much for its political importance as any economic benefit it brings the US or the UK. The Trump administration has talked about doing 90 trade deals in 90 days. That will never happen. Not a chance. These deals take time – and remember the UK deal is an outline agreement. There are hard yards that need to be fought over before something more substantial emerges. But the British are now not just supplicants in this process. It does represent something of a victory for Starmer. His super chumminess, the flourishing of the letter from the king, the more emollient approach does seem to have paid off. Is the deal perfect? No. But thousands of jobs in the auto industry were at imminent risk. They will be secured by this agreement, at least in the short term. And, yes, although cars made in Britain will cost 10 per cent more than they used to, European vehicles will be costing 25 per cent more in the US market until such times as the EU does a deal with Trump – which might still be some distance off. There is also the timing and sequencing. Trump's antipathy to the EU is profound. If Britain had done a deal with Brussels before the US (which it's hoping to do in the next couple of weeks), might that have made Trump more antipathetical to reaching an agreement with us? It's possible. Starmer for the moment is still walking that tightrope of refusing to choose between Brussels and Washington. Of course, he has faced attack from his Tory opponents. Kemi Badenoch saying on the one hand that he's been 'shafted' in this deal with the US – but on the other it had all been made possible by the hard work that the previous Conservative government had done. Which reminded me of one of my favourite Jewish jokes about the two women sitting in the restaurant and one calls the waiter over to complain that the food is disgusting, while the other then adds 'and such small portions'.
The National
09-05-2025
- Business
- The National
What happened when Donald Trump visited the Scottish Parliament
It was April 2012, and the US businessman was met outside Holyrood by crowds of booing environmentalists and placard-wielding anti-wind farm activists chanting: 'There's only one Donald Trump'. He smirked and waved before making his way inside to present evidence as part of a committee looking at the impact of renewable technology. Why? He was appearing to give evidence as a business owner in Scotland and arguing against further wind turbines. At that time, he owned just one golf course in Aberdeenshire but would soon add Turnberry in South Ayrshire a few years later. The billionaire was invited by the committee convener Murdo Fraser, explains Patrick Harvie – now Scottish Greens co-leader and then a member of the committee. (Image: Andrew Milligan/PA Archive/PA Images) 'Murdo Fraser was a little bit more sceptical about the Scottish Government's renewable energy targets. I obviously believed that they were not only achievable, but that we could do even more than those targets, and indeed that's what we did do,' he told The National. 'And at that time, Donald Trump was busily campaigning against renewables because he didn't want his wealthy guests at his golf resort to have to see the terrifying spectacle of a turbine on the horizon when they were teeing off.' Harvie added: 'I think it's probably fair to say that Murdo slightly bounced the committee into calling him as a witness. The idea that he was an expert witness on renewable energy is laughable. But, as far as I recall, Murdo met with Trump's team, and after the meeting, they announced that they were going to be giving evidence to the committee, without the committee having agreed to call him as a witness.' READ MORE: Keir Starmer's India trade deal panned as gift to Nigel Farage He went on: 'And once that was in the papers, most of the committee felt that they couldn't then say no without looking embarrassed. You know, I thought that was absurd. Trump is someone who has long pedalled unhinged conspiracy theories. He once wrote that climate change was invented by China to steal American jobs. 'It became the absurd circus that I was worried it would be.' And, of course, it did. With Tory MSP Fraser himself admitting in the aftermath that in terms of actual evidence, there 'wasn't much substance.' In a particular noteworthy moment, the now US president was claiming that the Scottish public hated wind farms. This led to SNP MSP Chic Brodie asking him what evidence he had to support this. The billionaire then pointed at himself and said 'I am the evidence'. After the mammoth two-hour long session, Harvie tweeted an image from the famous Monty Python's Life of Brian crucifixion scene and superimposed a speech bubble in front of each character that read "I am the evidence'. This didn't go down well with Trump. 'He got, I think at the time, one of Scotland's highest paid lawyers as his legal representative,' Harvie explained. READ MORE: Everything you need to know about John Swinney's Programme for Government 'And a little while later I got a letter informing me that I was being accused of blasphemy. That I offended the whole of Christendom, who I'm fairly certain were not all following me on Twitter.' The complaint was also sent to the Holyrood standards commissioner who was then forced to launch an investigation due to parliament rules and an obscure Scottish blasphemy law that was last enforced in 1843. It was, of course, thrown out as frivolous eventually. 'After many run-ins with religious hierarchy figures over equal marriage or sex education or umpteen other issues, I am now to this date the only MSP ever found formally not guilty of blasphemy,' Harvie said. 'So, I'm delighted with that.' Of course, Trump is now a two-term US president. How times have changed. But Harvie said people shouldn't forget what he has done and said in the past. 'At the time, there were people who still regarded him just as a media celebrity. They'd seen him on The Apprentice. They saw him as this kind of celebrity clown figure,' he explained. '[But] I think it's really important to acknowledge that well before then. In fact, decades before then – he was a notorious racist, sexist, homophobe, climate denier, and procurer of other conspiracy theories.' Harvie added: 'He's a dangerous, dangerous man and always was.'
United News of India
06-05-2025
- Business
- United News of India
Trump course to host revived Scottish Championship
London, May 6 (UNI) Donald Trump's Aberdeenshire golf course will host a DP World Tour event for the first time as the Scottish Championship returns to the circuit from August 7-10. The event has been played once before, in October 2020 at Fairmont St Andrews, and will replace the cancelled Czech Masters. Owned by the president of the United States, the Trump International course in the Menie area, 10 miles north of Aberdeen, opened in 2012 and staged PGA seniors tournaments in 2023 and 2024. Guy Kinnings, CEO of the DP World Tour, said: "Trump International Golf Links Scotland has already earned a reputation as one of the best modern links courses in the UK and it promises to be an excellent venue for the return of the Scottish Championship." The tournament, with a $2.75m (£2m) prize fund, will coincide with the FedEx St Jude Championship in the PGA Tour's season-ending play-offs, as well as the Chicago event in LIV Golf, the BBC reported. President Trump, who purchased Turnberry in 2014, handed over control of his Scottish golf courses to his sons shortly before he took office at the White House for the first time in 2017 but has retained a financial interest. Eric Trump, executive vice-president of The Trump Organisation and son of the president, said securing the Scottish Championship was a "significant milestone". It comes following claims that President Trump has made repeated requests for the 2028 Open Championship to be held at Turnberry. The UK government last week said it would be up to the R&A, organisers of the major, to decide which course stages the tournament. President Trump and White House officials have reportedly spoken to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer about the Open returning to the Ayrshire venue, which last hosted the event in 2009. BBC Sport has been told by several sources that the UK government has asked the R&A about its position on the matter in recent months. Some £200m of improvements have been carried out at Turnberry since the Trump acquisition of the course. New R&A chief executive Mark Darbon said in April he "would love" the course to host the tournament again, specifying that logistical issues pose the stumbling block, not who owns it. The number of spectators attending the Open has dramatically increased since 120,000 people attended Turnberry in 2009, with 278,000 spectators set to attend this year's event at Royal Portrush. For now, the Scottish Championship will thrust a Trump course into the spotlight. Spaniard Adrian Otaegui was the winner of the inaugural Scottish Championship five years ago. UNI BM
Chicago Tribune
06-05-2025
- Business
- Chicago Tribune
Donald Trump-owned golf course in Scotland to host August event on European tour
VIRGINIA WATER, England — A Scottish golf course owned by U.S. President Donald Trump will host a tournament on the European tour in August. Trump International Golf Links Scotland will stage the Scottish Championship from Aug. 7-10 after being added to the 2025 schedule by the tour on Tuesday. The course in Aberdeen is one of two owned by Trump in Scotland. The other is Trump Turnberry, which is one of 10 courses on the rotation to host the British Open — the oldest of the four major championships in men's golf — but hasn't staged that event since 2009. It will be the first time Trump International has staged an event on the European tour, though the course has been used for a tournament on the seniors' tour in 2023 and 2024 and will do so again this year, the week before the Scottish Championship. Eric Trump, executive vice president of the Trump Organization, said hosting back-to-back events at Trump International marked a 'significant milestone.' The Scottish Championship was last played on the European tour in October 2020. Trump's courses also host events on the breakaway LIV Golf circuit. The R&A, which organizes British Opens, has pointed to logistical and infrastructure issues as the main factor behind Turnberry's failure to be awarded the major since 2009, when Stewart Cink beat 59-year-old Tom Watson in a playoff. In 2021, the R&A's then-CEO, Martin Slumbers, said the Open would not be returning to Turnberry 'until we are convinced that the focus will be on the championship, the players and the course itself and we do not believe that is achievable in the current circumstances' — perhaps a nod to Trump's ownership of the course. The R&A's stance appears to have softened, though, under recently hired CEO Mark Darbon, who said last month that his organization was 'doing some feasibility work' regarding a potential return to Turnberry. Trump International, in northern Scotland, has a panoramic view of offshore wind turbines not far from Aberdeen beach. The Scottish government's approval of the wind farm drew the ire of Trump because he regarded the turbines as 'unsightly' and spoiling the views at his luxury golf resort nearby.
