Golf-obsessed U.S. President-elect Donald Trump will visit Scotland next year for the opening of a new course in Aberdeenshire, his son Eric told British news agency PA during an interview Tuesday.
This would be Trump’s first trip to Scotland since his U.S. election win in November.
The Trump International company said the course in Aberdeenshire, which is expected to open in summer 2025, will feature the largest sand dunes in Scotland and form “the greatest 36 holes in golf ” alongside an original course that was completed in 2012.
But the resort in the northeast of Scotland faced harsh criticism after the dunes at the original course lost their special status as a nationally important protected environment in 2020, as they did not “include enough of the special, natural features for which they were designated,” said Sally Thomas, director of people and nature at Scottish Natural Heritage.
However, Trump International claimed the new course will be “one of the most environmentally friendly and sustainable” ever constructed.
During a previous presidential visit in July 2018, Trump faced widespread protests in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen, where demonstrators condemned his policies and presence. Trump’s mother was actually born on the Scottish island of Lewis in 1912.
During the interview, Eric Trump criticized the Scottish government for making it “virtually impossible” to do business in the country.
“It’s very long to get permits, there are a lot of regulations, a lot of red tape, insane taxation, government leaders who just take pot shots at you for no reason whatsoever,” he said.
He also said it was “nasty” for Scottish First Minister John Swinney to endorse Kamala Harris a few days before the U.S. election and that his intervention did not help the relationship between the two countries.
“Again, my father adores Scotland, and you have a first minister coming out and just being fairly nasty in the days leading up,” he said.
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