Turnberry

BALMEDIE, Scotland — Golf and Scotland are close to President 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 convicted sex offender 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, Fla., 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 wind farm 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.”

Weissert and Superville write for the Associated Press. Superville reported from Washington.

EDINBURGH, Scotland — President Trump played golf Saturday at his course on Scotland’s coast while protesters around the country took to the streets to decry his visit and accuse United Kingdom leaders of pandering to the unpopular American president.

Trump and his son Eric played with the U.S. ambassador to Britain, Warren Stephens, near Turnberry, a historic course that the Trump family’s company took over in 2014. Security was tight, and protesters kept at a distance were unseen by the group during Trump’s round. He was dressed in black with a white “USA” cap and was spotted driving a golf cart.

The president appeared to play an opening nine holes, stop for lunch, then head out for nine more. By the middle of the afternoon, plainclothes security officials began leaving, suggesting Trump was done for the day.

Hundreds of demonstrators gathered on the cobblestone and tree-lined street in front of the U.S. Consulate about 100 miles away in Edinburgh, Scotland’s capital. Speakers told the crowd that Trump was not welcome and criticized British Prime Minister Keir Starmer for striking a recent trade deal to avoid stiff U.S. tariffs on goods imported from the U.K.

Protests were planned in other cities as environmental activists, opponents of Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza and pro-Ukraine groups loosely formed a “Stop Trump Coalition.” Anita Bhadani, an organizer, said the protests were “kind of like a carnival of resistance.”

June Osbourne, 52, a photographer and photo historian from Edinburgh, wore a red cloak and white hood, recalling “The Handmaid’s Tale.” Osbourne held up a picture of Trump with “Resist” stamped over his face.

“I think there are far too many countries that are feeling the pressure of Trump and that they feel that they have to accept him, and we should not accept him here,” Osbourne said. The dual U.S.-British citizen said the Republican president was “the worst thing that has happened to the world, the U.S., in decades.”

Trump’s late mother, Mary Anne MacLeod, was born on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland, and the president has suggested he feels at home in the country. But the protesters did their best to change that.

“I don’t think I could just stand by and not do anything,” said Amy White, 15, of Edinburgh, who attended with her parents. She held a cardboard sign that said, “We don’t negotiate with fascists.”

”So many people here loathe him,” she said. “We’re not divided. We’re not divided by religion, or race or political allegiance, we’re just here together because we hate him.”

Other demonstrators held signs of pictures with Trump and Jeffrey Epstein, as the fervor over files in the late child abuser’s case has created a political crisis for the president.

In the view of Mark Gorman, 63, of Edinburgh, “The vast majority of Scots have this sort of feeling about Trump that, even though he has Scottish roots, he’s a disgrace.” Gorman, who works in advertising, said he came out “because I have deep disdain for Donald Trump and everything that he stands for.”

A Scottish newspaper, the National, greeted Trump’s arrival with a banner headline in its Friday edition that read, “Convicted U.S. felon to arrive in Scotland.”

Saturday’s protests were not nearly as large as the throngs that demonstrated across Scotland when Trump played at Turnberry during his first term in 2018.

But, as bagpipes played, people chanted, “Trump out!” and raised dozens of homemade signs with such messages as “No red carpet for dictators,” “We don’t want you here” and “Stop Trump. Migrants welcome.”

One dog had a sign attached that said “No treats for tyrants.”

Some on the far right took to social media to call for gatherings supporting Trump in places such as Glasgow.

Trump also plans to talk trade with Starmer and Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president.

But golf is a major focus.

The family will also visit another Trump course near Aberdeen in northeastern Scotland, before returning to Washington on Tuesday. The Trumps will cut the ribbon and play a new, second course in that area, which officially opens to the public next month.

Scottish First Minister John Swinney, who is also set to meet with Trump during the visit, announced that public money will go to staging the 2025 Nexo Championship, previously known previously as the Scottish Championship, at Trump’s first course near Aberdeen next month.

“The Scottish government recognizes the importance and benefits of golf and golf events, including boosting tourism and our economy,” Swinney said.

At a protest Saturday in Aberdeen, Scottish Parliament member Maggie Chapman told the crowd of hundreds: “We stand in solidarity, not only against Trump but against everything he and his politics stand for.”

The president has long lobbied for Turnberry to host the British Open, which it has not done since he took over ownership.

In a social media post Saturday, Trump quoted the retired golfer Gary Player as saying Turnberry was among the “Top Five Greatest Golf Courses” he had played in as a professional. The president, in the post, misspelled the city where his golf course is.

Weissert writes for the Associated Press.