BALMEDIE, Scotland (AP) — Golf and Scotland are close to U.S. President Donald Trump's heart, and both were in play Tuesday as he opened a new eponymous course in the land of his mother’s birth, capping a five-day trip that was largely about promoting his family’s luxury properties.
Dressed for golf and sporting a white cap that said “USA,” Trump appeared to be in such a jolly mood that he even lavished rare praise -- instead of the usual insults -- on the contingent of journalists who had gathered to cover the event.
“Today they’re not fake news,” Trump said. “Today they’re wonderful news.”
The golf-focused trip gave him a chance to escape Washington’s summer heat, but he could not avoid questions about Jeffrey Epstein, the deepening food crisis in Gaza or other issues that trailed him across the Atlantic. The trip itself teed up another example of how the Republican president has used the White House to promote his brand.
Trump addresses Gaza and Epstein
Trump on Monday expressed concern over the worsening humanitarian situation in Gaza and urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to do more to get food aid to hungry Palestinians.
Asked if he agreed with Netanyahu’s assertion Sunday that “there is no policy of starvation in Gaza and there is no starvation in Gaza,” Trump said he didn't know but added, “I mean, based on television, I would say not particularly because those children look very hungry.”
The president also offered a reason why he banished Epstein from his private club in Palm Beach, Florida, years ago, saying it was because the disgraced financier “stole people that worked for me." A top White House aide said last week that Epstein was kicked out for being a “creep.”
Trump tees off on newly opened golf course
Flanked by sons Eric and Donald Jr., Trump counted “1-2-3” and wielded a pair of golden scissors to cut a red ribbon marking the ceremonial opening of the new Trump course in the village of Balmedie on Scotland’s northern coast.
“This has been an unbelievable development,” Trump said before the ribbon cutting. He thanked Eric, who designed the course, saying his work on the project was “truly a labor of love for him.”
Eric Trump said the course was his father’s “passion project.”
Immediately afterward, Trump, Eric Trump and two professional golfers teed off on the first hole with plans to play a full 18 before the president returns to Washington on Tuesday night. Trump rarely allows the news media to watch his golf game, though video journalists and photographers often find him along the course whenever he plays.
Trump's shot had a solid sound and soared straight, high and relatively far. Clearly pleased, he turned to the cameras and did an almost half bow.
“He likes the course, ladies and gentlemen” Eric Trump said.
Billed as the “Greatest 36 Holes in Golf,” the Trump International Golf Links, Scotland, is hosting back-to-back weekend tournaments before it begins offering rounds to the public on Aug. 13.
Trump fits White House business into golf trip
Trump worked some official business into the trip by holding talks with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and reaching a trade framework for tariffs between the U.S. and the European Union’s 27 member countries — though scores of key details remain to be settled.
But the trip itself was centered around golf, and the presidential visit served to raise the new course’s profile.
Trump’s assets are in a trust and his sons are running the family business while he’s in the White House. Any business generated at the course will ultimately enrich the president when he leaves office, though.
The new golf course will be the third owned by the Trump Organization in Scotland. Trump bought Turnberry in 2014 and owns another course near Aberdeen that opened in 2012.
Trump golfed at Turnberry on Saturday, as protesters took to the streets, and on Sunday before meeting there in the afternoon with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
New course blends things dear to Trump
The occasion blended two things dear to Trump: golf and Scotland.
His mother, the late Mary Anne MacLeod, was born on the Isle of Lewis on the north coast.
“We love Scotland here. My mother was born here, and she loved it,” Trump said Tuesday. She visited “religiously once a year” during the summer with his sisters, he said.
Perhaps the only mood-buster for Trump are the wind turbines that are part of a nearby windfarm and can be seen from around the new course.
Trump, who often speaks about his hatred of windmills, sued in 2013 to block construction of the wind farm but lost the case and was eventually ordered to pay legal costs for filing the lawsuit – a matter that still enrages him more than a decade later.
Trump said on a new episode of the New York Post's “Pod Force One” podcast that the “ugly windmills” are a “shame” and are “really hurting” Scotland. The interview was conducted over the weekend and released Tuesday.
“It kills the birds, ruins the look. They're noisy,” he said, asserting that the value of real estate around them also plummets. “I think it's a very bad thing. Environmentally, it's horrible.”
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Superville reported from Washington.
Will Weissert And Darlene Superville, The Associated Press
