“Not welcome”: several hundred people demonstrated on Saturday in Edinburgh and Aberdeen in Scotland to protest against the visit of Donald Trump, who added to his passion for golf on his turn in Turnberry, placed under the high police surveillance.
In the company in particular of his son Eric and the United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom, the American president struck his first blows on the Green of the luxurious complex belonging to the family business on Saturday.
His arrival Friday evening in Turnberry transformed this picturesque region and usually calm from the southwest of Scotland into a real fortress, with closed roads and many control points installed by the police.
On site, this trip combining leisure, commercial negotiations with the European Union and diplomacy divides the inhabitants.
The Stop Trump Coalition group had called for demonstrations against this visit.
Several hundred people gathered in front of the American consulate in Edinburgh, the Scottish capital, as well as in the city of Aberdeen, an economic lung of the Northeast, near which Donald Trump has a second golf conplex in which he must go during his visit.
– “Not welcome” –
Some participants brandished signs saying “Scotland Hates Trump” (Scotland hates Trump) when others waved Palestinian flags.
In Aberdeen, a man held a sign representing the face of the Red American President with devil horns, according to images filmed by AFP.
“Not only is he not welcome here, but all that his policy represents is not welcome either,” said Maggie Chapman, Scottish deputy for the Greens Party, present in Aberdeen.
“He is sexist, misogynist (…) and all that interests him is his personal enrichment,” she denounced, accusing her local golf course, on which a second course must soon be inaugurated, of having resulted in the destruction of a natural site.
“I am here because of the genocide in Gaza, funded and allowed by the British and American governments. (…) I cannot look away,” protests Amy Hanlon, 44, who works in online marketing.
The arrival of the American president sparked a large -scale security operation, for which the Scottish police obtained the reinforcement of other police forces in the country.
Donald Trump, who is entangled in the repercussions of the Epstein affair in the United States, claimed his love for Scotland on several occasions, where his mother was born and grew up. But his policy and the local investments of his family group arouse controversy.
Dozens of supporters of the American president had however gathered at Prestwick airport on Friday evening in the southwest of Glasgow, to try to see it.
“The best with Trump is that he is not a politician (…) and I think he defends above all the interests of his country,” Lee McLean, 46, who came from the neighboring city of Kilmarncock told AFP.
– Meeting with von der Leyen –
In addition to his golf game, the American president indicated on Saturday on his Truth Social network exchanging from Scotland with the leaders of Cambodia and Thailand to reach a ceasefire between the two countries which have been competing for several days because of a border dispute.
On Sunday, he had to meet the president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen for discussions on the commercial agreement that the EU hoped to avoid massive customs duties. The chances are “50-50”, he judged on Friday.
He must also speak on Monday with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
When he got off the plane, the American president said that the time would be in the “celebration” in terms of trade after the agreement concluded in June with the United Kingdom providing for reduced customs duties for British products.
The British leader, however, still hopes to obtain lasting reduced rights on steel and aluminum.
Upon arrival, Donald Trump also mentioned immigration to Europe, calling for European countries “to pull himself together” and “put an end to this horrible invasion”.
Posted on July 26 at 6.45 p.m.