BALMEDIE (United Kingdom), July 29 — Donald Trump officially opened his new golf course in Scotland today, ending a five-day trip in which the US president signed a major trade deal with the EU and gave Russia less than two weeks to end the Ukraine war.
To the sound of bagpipes, secret agents and golfers criss-crossed the sprawling complex on the Aberdeenshire coast, waiting for the president to tee off.
“We started with a beautiful piece of land, but we made it much more beautiful, and the area has… really, really welcomed us,” Trump said before cutting the ribbon.
“We’ll play it very quickly, and then I go back to (Washington) DC and we put out fires all over the world,” he added.
“We have a world that’s got some conflict, but we’ve ironed out a lot of it. We’re gonna have a great and peaceful world.”
Trump’s campaign song, the Village People’s “YMCA”, blared out after the ribbon cutting, as fireworks exploded in the background.
The president then teed off with son Eric, who led the project.
“This will be a tremendously successful place and a place where people can come and enjoy life,” the US leader said, highlighting how his trip has again blurred the lines between his presidency and his business interests.
“We wanted this to be the greatest 36 holes anywhere on Earth. And there’s no question that that’s been achieved,” said Eric Trump.
“This was his Mona Lisa,” he said of his father’s connection with the course.
“Sculpting the dunes, sculpting the land, that was always his painting,” he added.
Trade deal
The new course features the world’s largest natural bunker, dunes and greens overlooking the sea, with a “focus on environmental sensitivity”, said a press release.
Visible out to sea were the offshore wind turbines that Trump unsuccessfully tried to block.
The president again spoke out against wind power as he hosted European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen on Sunday and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer yesterday.
It was one of the many issues Trump addressed during free-wheeling press conferences at his other golf complex in Turnberry, western Scotland over the past days.
With Von der Leyen, he announced a trade agreement in which the EU resigned itself to 15 percent tariffs on goods entering the United States, a deal heavily criticised across the continent.
At a press conference Monday with Starmer, Trump promised more aid for Gaza, gave Russian President Vladimir Putin a “10 or 12 day” ultimatum to cease hostilities in Ukraine.
“I really felt it was going to end. But every time I think it’s going to end he kills people,” Trump said of the Russian leader. “I’m not so interested in talking (to him) anymore,” he added.
Trump also criticised London mayor Sadiq Khan at the press conference and waded back into UK politics on Tuesday when he took to his Truth Social platform to urge the government to cut taxes and incentivise oil drilling in the North Sea, denouncing wind turbines as “ugly monsters”.
“Incentivize the drillers, FAST. A VAST FORTUNE TO BE MADE for the UK, and far lower energy costs for the people,” he wrote.
Trump played golf at Turnberry on Saturday and Sunday on a visit that mixed leisure with diplomacy.
He is to fly back to Washington today. — AFP
