The misadventure of Trump golf in the Scottish dunes

President Donald Trump plays golf this weekend in one of his resort businesses, Trump Turnberry, on the west coast of Scotland. About 200 miles northeast, on the opposite coast, is another Trump property that the president abandoned during his tour of the UK.

Maybe he runs his Trump International Golf Links. Maybe it's more about the glamorous legacy of Turnberry, which is lacking in its northern cousin.

Anyway, Trump International is a reminder that Trump has still not fulfilled the grandiose promises of economic development and job creation that he made when he convinced locals to abide by the laws of the environment. He decides to build two important golf courses in Aberdeenshire.

Trump purchased 1,800 acres of land in 2005, developed the property from scratch, and then opened it in 2012. His representatives say he spent up to $ 140. million on the project. The Washington Post reported that Trump probably spent a lot less: about $ 12.6 million to buy the property and at least $ 50 million to develop it. But Trump International lost about 1.4 million pounds ($ 1.7 million) on a turnover of about 2.63 million pounds in 2016, according to documents filed in the UK – and it remains the shadow of the project that Trump originally announced. 1965 Troubl received zoning discrepancies to build environmentally protected sand dunes after promising to invest between $ 1 billion and $ 2 billion – and create 6,000 to 7,000 jobs – in a Mecca of the United States. golf and tourism in Aberdeenshire

only a small fraction of that amount, and he created only about 93 jobs (although his director over told the BBC last year that "there caddies "would raise the payroll to 150 people). A 450 bed hotel and 1,500 luxury homes that Trump promised never materialized either. (Trump claims annual income of $ 3.5 million for 2017, according to his most recent financial disclosure form.)

In pursuing the project, Trump repeatedly tried to evict local residents with houses adjacent to its course. All of this has soured Trump's hosts on the president, and his plans to build a sister course in Aberdeen seem like they will not be approved by the local government. "Critics contend that Trump is now an" international outcast "with a brand so toxic that it can only hurt Aberdeenshire's reputation," notes recently The Herald, a Scottish newspaper.

It is not known if any of this antipathy will be recorded by the president

"Aberdeen has been a huge success." He said in 2014, when the course was also losing money and n & # He had not yet organized a major tournament. "It has been judged as the largest golf course built since 1960, by many people.It is one of the great golf courses of the world.It is very, very successful.It makes record business and it was great for Aberdeen Aberdeen people like me. "

Stand at the top of any room at Trump International and you see what has attracted the president. At its base, Trump is a builder, not a dealmaker, and the windy landscape, Seussian in Aberdeen gave him a chance and his designer to build on an epic scale. They succeeded. Trump International is a classic "links" (no trees) course, embroidered with sand dunes and featuring a number of tees on the high sand hills that look down on winding and hilly paths. Playing at over 7,400 yards and with 110 separate starting boxes, he is prepared to challenge the toughest golfer.

A Scottish golf photographer introduced Trump to the place – the site of an old estate – in 2005. After having visited and bought the land, Trump was hooked. He announced plans for his course, with luxury homes and a hotel, in 2006. But environmentalists and local residents concerned about the impact of the course on the region's spectacular sand dunes. have opposed.

In 2007, Scottish Prime Minister Alex Salmond intervened on behalf of Trump and invoked his national authority to overturn this decision the following year. The logic of approval of the agreement, according to the Salmond government, was that the generous economic development that would follow in the wake of Trump would outweigh any environmental damage that could accompany it. (The North Sea oil boom that fueled the revival of Aberdeen stuttered, and placing bets on tourism seemed like a clever way to diversify the economy.)

A prominent plaque near the clubhouse commemorates the Trumpian vision of its links. He notes that the course encompasses "the largest sand dunes in the world" (this is not the case in Namibia) and that it is "according to many, the largest golf course in the world!" (That's not true.) Trump's son, Eric, said in a recent interview with the Washington Post that his family had done all this in Aberdeenshire by deploying piles of his own cash – a curious change from Trump's long-standing preference.

He is also a bit puzzled from a business standpoint why Trump felt the need to build an upscale luxury golf resort in Aberdeen. There were already a handful of well-regarded clubs in the area, including Royal Aberdeen (opened in 1780 and one of the oldest courses in the world) and Murcar Links (opened in 1909), which were considered alternatives to Trump International. While Aberdeenshire is a beautiful part of the world, it is not necessarily where dozens of millionaires would like to spend money for seaside mansions. The area is charming because it's relatively untamed and inaccessible, and the down-to-earth and hospitable residents are not golf snobs. When Trump opened his course with green fees of around $ 325 a lap, many local golfers balked.

Yet even before the class was over, Trump jumped into a series of unnecessary fights with locals. More specifically, Trump tried to buy a fisherman, Michael Forbes, who refused the offer. Trump said Forbes was living in a "pigsty" that ruined the views of his course. He therefore cut off the water supply to Forbes and his extended family to force them to move. Most Scots, who have not forgotten centuries of expropriation by hereditary aristocrats, have inevitably taken sides with Forbes and his neighbors.

Trump had already scored a stroke when he had earned the right to build the course and could have pursued his goals. It's just beautiful with its new neighbors. But he kept after the residents (echoing the efforts he made decades ago in Atlantic City, New Jersey, to oust a woman whose boarding school was near one of his casinos) and he was finally saved. When Forbes won a "Top Scot" award a few months after opening Trump's course in 2012, Trump took Twitter for insulting the fisherman again.

Today, Forbes House is always where it has always been. When Trump visited Scotland during the 2016 presidential campaign, Forbes and a neighbor, David Milne, hoisted Mexican flags on their properties in what Milne described as "a show of solidarity with the Mexican people and all those whom Trump ridiculed, insulted and intimidated. "

Trump also chose a fight with the Scottish government on an offshore wind farm that the country was planning to build near the golf course as a clean energy alternative. Trump thought that the big white windmills on the farmhouse, like Forbes House, would tarnish his lines of sight.Windmills "look very bad," "kill all the birds" and are "a technology old, "he admitted in an interview on his course at Aberdeen in 2011.

" I am an ecologist. "" I have won numerous awards for the environment and the Environment and what I have done to improve the environment. "

Trump, who has never won a prize for or the environment, formally submitted a document noting his opposition to the wind farm that same year, and two years later, in 2013, he filed a lawsuit to stop the project completely. the case in 2015 and Scottish Prime Minister Nicola Sturgeon, was mocked Trump last week for trying to kill the project.

"You may have heard of these turbines, he has now decided to sue the Scottish government for trying to block these wind turbines because he thought they had spoiled the view of his new land. of golf, "she said at a conference on technology." Earlier this week, in fact, these amazing wind turbines generated their first electricity. These are engineering marvels, but, more importantly, they will very soon produce enough electricity for nearly three quarters of all homes in the city of Aberdeen. "

Meanwhile, Trump's course in Aberdeen continues to lose money. has not yet caught up with legions of golfers. Most of the jobs and investments promised by Trump failed to materialize. A Scottish regulator is currently investigating the possibility of potential environmental damage to sand dunes.

Even Alex Salmond has become a critic of Trump. In an interview late last year with the BBC, he said Trump had essentially cheated on his plans in Aberdeenshire.

"I found it hard to believe that anyone could be as brazenly certain of an investment plan." For its part, Trump's executives in Scotland say that & # 39; 39, they intend to return Aberdeen

"Trump would not come to Balmedie, and Aberdeenshire and Scotland to earn money, go," said Sarah Malone, a Trump organization executive, in an interview with the BBC last year.

But some people are skeptical.

"Their actions suggest that they" I do not intend to build the rest of the golf course, "said Martin Ford, a member of Parliament for Aberdeen who voted against Donald Trump's project in 2007, during a recent interview with me in his office

. in 2014 to be so put off D 'after his experience of Aberdeen, he would concentrate all his "Investment and his energy" on a new course that he was developing in Ireland.That disgust for Scotland did not last long.Two months later, he bought Turnberry.

Controversies apart, Trump embraces a troubled hobby.Many golf course operators have pulled out of the business and dozens of courses have been canceled in the United States

. also expose, as president, to a myriad of conflicts of interest that he has not resolved.] As reported McClatchy T, a construction company owned in part by the Saudi and South Korean governments signed a contract for the construction of a luxury resort in Indonesia that will include a Trump brand golf course

. the promises of the Trump family, commemorated in a conflict of interest plan that they unveiled in early 2017, to avoid pursuing commercial partnerships with foreign governments after Trump became president.

The Bali Government, as part of a second Trump Project Indonesia is building a toll road that will reduce travel time between the local airport and a local airport. Hotel and golf project of the Trump brand. An Indonesian state-owned company is also building a new toll road on the other Trump Indonesian golf course.

In Dubai, the Trump Organization hired a construction company owned by the Chinese government to work on a family golf project. In addition, in violation of the promise of the Trump family to avoid overseas partnerships involving entities belonging to the state.

Back in Scotland, at least one of the trumps tried to show love in Aberdeenshire. After appearing on Tuesday Fox News to extol the virtues of his father's relentless attacks on the NATO alliance, Eric Trump jumped on the Trump Organization's throw. and went to Trump International to visit what he called one of the "best golf courses in Scotland."

On the ground in Aberdeenshire on Thursday, Trump's son told local reporters that his family had a permanent link to the land where the president's mother – an immigrant to the United States – was born.

"We love this country," he said. "We love the UK in general and it's a big part of our lives – it's a big part of his life, pre-political, and that can only be positive."

Second of two columns on the Trump golf courses in Scotland.

To contact the author of this story:
Timothy L. O. Brien at [email protected]

To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Jonathan Landman at [email protected]