(Turnberry) Donald Trump is expected on Friday in Scotland, where he will spend an extended weekend combining diplomacy with golf and where a large security device has been deployed in anticipation of demonstrations.
The American president must arrive shortly after 3 p.m. (east time) in Turnberry, one of the two golf complexes belonging to the family business led by his sons. His official agenda is empty for Saturday and Sunday.
Scottish police, which are preparing for demonstrations in Edinburgh and Aberdeen as well as proximity to golf courses, announced the establishment of a “major operation across the country for several days”.
PHOTO ALASTAIR GRANT, ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Trump Turnberry Golf Complex in Scotland
Before leaving for Washington, Donald Trump planned a meeting, whose details are not known, with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
The latter does not pass to be keen on golf as the 79 -year -old Republican and he will have other concerns anyway.
The United States and the United Kingdom announced in May a trade agreement, but London is concerned about the will expressed by Donald Trump to “refine” it.
Far from the Trumpist rumble
The British head of government, who has so far succeeded in preventing his country from being matured by exorbitant customs duties, will seek to stay in the small papers of the unpredictable American president.
The latter will be back in the United Kingdom in September, for a state visit to the invitation of King Charles III promisingly.
In Scotland, the war in the Gaza Strip will undoubtedly be a subject of discussion, when the Labor Prime Minister is called by deputies to follow the step of the French President Emmanuel Macron to recognize the Palestinian State.
Crossing the Atlantic, Donald Trump will be at least geographically from the twists and turns of the very embarrassing case Jeffrey Epstein, a rich financier accused of sexual crimes and died in prison in 2019 before being tried.
Some of his supporters accuse him of lacking transparency about this old figure of the New York jet set, with which he himself had a friendly relationship and which has become the symbol for a whole fringe of the “Maga” movement of the turpitudes of a protected elite.
The Wall Street Journalfor having published an article on the links between the president and the sex offender, was also deprived of his seat on the Air Force One plane during the trip.
Donald Trump had provided during a previous visit in 2023, to feel “at home” in Scotland where his mother, Mary Anne Macleod, grew up before emigrating at 18 in the United States.
Manifestations
His affection is not necessarily reciprocal: demonstrations are scheduled for Saturday in Edinburgh and Aberdeen to protest against his presence.
PHOTO PHIL NOBLE, REUTERS
Police are patrolling the Trump Turnberry hotel before the planned arrival of US President Donald Trump later during the day.
In 2018, his previous visit to Turnberry had pushed thousands of people to demonstrate in Glasgow and Edinburgh.
Scottish Prime Minister John Swinney announced that he would meet Donald Trump during his visit, stressing that Scotland “has had a solid friendship with the United States for centuries”.
The trip of the American president offers this nation of the United Kingdom “a platform to make his voice heard on important issues, including war and peace, justice and democracy,” he added.
The construction of a new course by the group today led by the sons of Donald Trump aroused dissatisfaction in Balmedie, the Aberdeenshire, on the part of certain residents and elected environmentalists.
This is only one of the many projects, real estate or other, around the world of the Trump family.
If Donald Trump no longer legally has the control of the family company, his opponents criticize him for multiplying conflicts of interest by using his functions as president to push private family investments, especially abroad.
The American NGO CREW (Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington) calculated in May that 21 development projects under the Trump brand would be carried out abroad during the second mandate.
She also noted that the ethical charter published in January by the Trump Organization did not prohibit her from opening new international projects with private actors, when she had imposed a moratorium during the first mandate (2017-2021).