United States President Donald Trump says he has spoken with the leaders of Cambodia and Thailand in a bid to end their border fighting, on the second day of his golfing trip in Scotland, where he owns and is promoting two courses.
“Just spoke to the Prime Minister of Cambodia relative to stopping the War with Thailand,” said Trump in a post on his Truth Social network on Saturday. Trump, who was playing at his Turnberry resort with son Eric and US ambassador to the UK Warren Stephens, said soon after in a new post, “I have just spoken to the Acting Prime Minister of Thailand, and it was a very good conversation.”
On Saturday, the death toll on both sides stood at 32, with more than 130 injured. Trump’s announcement came as clashes, now in their third day, continued in the countries’ coastal regions where they meet on the Gulf of Thailand, about 250 kilometres (160 miles) southwest of the main front lines.
Tensions flared over long-contested ancient temple sites before fighting spread along the countries’ rural border region, marked by a ridge of hills surrounded by wild jungle and agricultural land where locals farm rubber and rice.
The decades-old conflict between Thailand and Cambodia, centred around a contested section of their shared border, re-erupted on Thursday after a landmine explosion along the border wounded five Thai soldiers.
“Thailand, like Cambodia, wants to have an immediate Ceasefire, and PEACE,” said Trump on Saturday.
“I am now going to relay that message back to the Prime Minister of Cambodia. After speaking to both Parties, Ceasefire, Peace, and Prosperity seems to be a natural. We will soon see!”
Trump also indicated he would not move forward on trade deals with either nation until fighting has stopped.
‘Even though he has Scottish roots, he’s a disgrace’
Trump’s visit to Scotland, where his late mother hailed from, has met protests, both at the golf course where he is playing and elsewhere around the UK.
Hundreds of demonstrators gathered on Saturday in front of the US Consulate in the capital Edinburgh. Speakers told the crowd that Trump was not welcome and criticised British Prime Minister Keir Starmer for striking a recent trade deal to avoid stiff US tariffs on goods imported from the UK.
“The vast majority of Scots have this sort of feeling about Trump that, even though he has Scottish roots, he’s a disgrace,” said Mark Gorman, 63. Gorman, who works in advertising, said he came out “because I have deep disdain for Donald Trump and everything that he stands for.”
Protests also took place in other cities as environmental activists, opponents of Israel’s war on Gaza, staunchly supported by the Trump administration, and pro-Ukraine groups loosely formed a “Stop Trump Coalition”.
“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,” said June Osbourne, 52, a photographer and photo historian.
“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.”
Other demonstrators held signs of pictures with Trump and Jeffrey Epstein as the feeding frenzy in the US media, and backlash from his MAGA base, over files in the case has increasingly frustrated the president.
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.”
While golf is the main purpose of his trip, Trump also plans to talk trade with Starmer and Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president.
The Trump family will also visit another one of their courses near Aberdeen in northeastern Scotland, before returning to Washington on Tuesday.
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