Donald Trump's golf imperialism

Golf is another front in Trump’s campaign to bend the world to his will.

via Alamy

In the excited anticipation of US President Donald Trump’s second state visit to the United Kingdom in mid-September, little attention is being paid to the visit Trump is making to the UK before that, later this month.

Trump is not coming for the preliminary chat the King was hoping to have before pushing the actual state visit into some time in the future. On this first visit, Charles III has no plans to meet his fellow head of state. Donald Trump will be in Scotland, but there will be no overnight stay this time at Balmoral. Sir Keir Starmer has already said he will make the journey north to pay homage to the president. Trump will also meet Scottish First Minister John Swinney.

Talks with politicians however are not top of Trump’s agenda. He is coming to the UK for golf – which is his personal and business obsession. He will be celebrating the opening of the second 18-hole links golf course constructed at the “majestic Trump Estate” at Balmedie, a few miles north of Aberdeen.

His battle to build the golf course dates back almost twenty years – long before his successful run for the White House. In microcosm, the story of the course displays many of the traits Trump has displayed in politics: bombast, nam-calling, double dealing and, above all, tenacity and determination to win at all costs.

Typically, “Nunquam Concedere” – “Never Give In” – is the motto Trump attached to the coat of arms which he persuaded the Scotland’s Lyon King of Arms to grant to "The Trump International Golf Club Scotland Ltd". Waste not want not, Trump also uses the badge for "The Trump International Golf Links and Hotel Ireland".

Golf imperialism is one front in Trump’s campaign to bend the world to his will.

The prime minister should brace for Trump to up his demand for the Open, the British one of the four golf "Major" tournaments, to be played at one of his courses. Turnberry, on the west coast of Scotland, has hosted the Open before, but not since Trump purchased it in 2014 for £39.5 million. "Trump Turnberry" now boasts the most expensive green fees in Scotland of £1,000 a round compared to just £42.50 for Scottish golfers at St Andrew’s.

Now Trump has a highly priced, world class 36-hole golf course on the East coast of Scotland as well.

Golf matters to Donald Trump and it is big business for him. The Trump organisation has been amassing and constructing courses since 1999 and now owns some eighteen of them. Twelve are in the US. As well in Scotland and Ireland, he also has developments in Indonesia, Puerto Rico and the UAE. In 2024, Trump reported $267 million in “golf related” income plus $161 million “golf and hotel” proceeds from his Doral club in Miami. Trump’s son Eric is in temporary charge of the business.

There have been many claims that the family is profiting from the presidency by hosting officials and guests at its resorts at high rates, with the bill sometimes picked up by the American taxpayer.

Golf is also Trump’s main physical recreation. During his first four-year term, President Trump played golf 427 times, mainly at courses his companies own. That works out at once every 5.6 days. He has kept up the average in his second term, playing more than once a week. Claims by his spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt that his uses his time outdoors to network with Members of Congress and other VIPs are not born out by the guest list of his playmates, largely made up of cronies and employees.

A whole book, Commander in Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump, has already been published about the president’s unique approach to the game. Rick Reilly, a Sports Illustrated writer, cites numerous incidents of Trump fiddling the score card and behaving in an unsportsmanlike way. One favourite tactic is to claim that the ball closest to the hole is his, whether he hit it there or not.

Trump purchased the 1,400 Menie Estate in 2006. He warned that the Aberdeen area would be hard hit by the end of the oil boom and pledged to invest a billion dollars in a new golf resort, ultimately generating 5,000 jobs.

Nineteen years later, the business needs a boost from the opening of the second course. At the end of 2023, it was given an asset value of £37,201,613 with outstanding loans to Trump of over £40 million. The operating loss was over £1 million. Around 80 people are employed full time at the resort.

Trump has not yet been able to build the promised large luxury hotel and resort village. Exclusive accommodation is currently limited to “the five-star Trump Macleod House and Lodge”. There are ten bedrooms in the “baronial mansion” and a further nine in the converted stables and blacksmith’s house.

Trump’s mother Mary Macleod was born on the Isle of Lewis and is commemorated at the resort. Her name however has been dropped for the new course. The two eighteen holes are referred to as “the Old” and “the New” courses, perhaps a distant echo of venerable “Royal and Ancient” Club which has the Open in its gift.

There are fewer than twenty decent links courses in the world. Played over sand dunes, if the ball misses the fairway or green it will be lost in very long grass. The construction of a total of 36 new holes of links golf is a considerable but controversial achievement which has faced opposition over two decades.

The Scottish government under Alex Salmond and, today’s First Minster John Swinney who was then the minister responsible, overruled local opposition in Aberdeenshire after Trump testified in person at a planning inquiry, enabling the development to go ahead.

First Minister Salmond became a friend and dining companion at Trump Tower but the two men soon fell out over a proposed off-shore windfarm. In 2012, Trump wrote to Salmond: "With the reckless installation of these monsters, you will single-handedly have done more damage to Scotland than virtually any event in Scottish history." In spite of frequent legal challenges, the scheme went ahead, perhaps explaining in part Trump’s enduring hatred of “windmills”.

The so-called “moving sand dunes” on which the courses have been built were SSSI, sites of special scientific interest. Local opposition was fierce and colourful, including the involvement of Queen guitarist Brian May and the making of an award-winning documentary You’ve Been Trumped. Trump described Michael Forbes, a local farmer blocking his plans, as “a pig” who lived in “a slum”. He was taken to court after the water supply was cut off to Forbes's mother, Molly. In 2012, Forbes was voted “Top Scot” in a poll. Another local, David Milne, had a large dune built surrounding his home.

Even without inevitable controversy over his policies as president, Police Scotland are preparing for protests locally when Trump visits in a few days’ time. It is an open question whether the Prime Minister is wise to hasten to what will be in essence a Trump business promotion.

Sir Keir is no golf fan. He is the first prime minister in 107 years to turn down the offer of honorary membership of the club near his country residence of Chequers. Previous Labour Prime Ministers Clement Attlee and Harold Wilson played frequently on the Ellesborough Golf course and took important visitors out for a round. Bill Clinton gave Tony Blair his first lesson how to play over four holes there. “Either he is an unbelievable athlete or I have a career as a golf instructor”, Clinton commented after a successful round. Gordon Brown called on the Royal and Ancient to admit women to the club.

Presumably, Starmer snubbed Ellesborough’s gesture because he was worried about taking freebies or, as a football fan, detests the more middle-class sport of golf. Either way, the chances of golfing fun with Trump on his new course in Scotland seem remote. The prime minister will still have to make sure he does not come away the loser from this Trump encounter.