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Here's How Much It Would Cost The U.K. If Trump Stops By His Golf Course In Scotland
President Trump will soon make his first official trip to England as president, and may make a brief stop in Scotland while he's there. This raises the possibility that Trump will visit one of his Scotland golf courses, although the White House hasn't confirmed that he will.
Regardless, the BBC reports that the president's jaunt over to Scotland may cost the United Kingdom over $6 million — for just one day. Interim Chief Constable Iain Livingstone told the Scottish Police Authority that a one-day Trump visit to Scotland would require 5,000 Scottish police officers and significant logistical planning and reallocation of police resources.
"I do have to stress that we do not have final confirmation that the president of the United States will actually include any specific engagements in Scotland," Lingingstone told the BBC. "However, we do have to prepare for such an eventuality, and I consider it's my duty in my current role to ensure that we prepare contingencies."
Humza Yousaf, Scotland’s new justice secretary, told the British home secretary in a letter that the U.K. government should foot the cost of Trump's Scotland visit, if it ends up happening.
Trump's two Scottish golf courses have long been a source of anger and frustration for locals, who've taken issue with Trump's management of those properties on more than one occasion. That's probably one reason the cities of Glasgow and Edinburgh have already planned anti-Trump protests to coincide with his trip to the island.
Before the opening of Trump's golf course in Aberdeenshire in 2012, he claimed that it would create 6,000 jobs, according to the Independent. Four years later, however, only 150 were employed at the property. Trump also promised an eight-story, 450-room luxury hotel and 950 time-share apartments, according to the New York Times, none of which were ever built.
In addition, several couples that lives on the outskirts of the Aberdeenshire course told the Times that when they refused to sell their homes to clear out space for the golf course, Trump's team built walls around their own properties. One couple says that Trump then sent them a $3,500 bill for building an unwanted fence around their garden, which also resulted in their water and electricity lines being cut temporarily; that couple now flies a Mexican flag above their home whenever Trump is in town.
Trump also took an antagonistic approach to Scotland when the government drafted plans to build several offshore wind turbines near that same golf course in 2012. Trump filed a lawsuit to stop the construction of the turbines, arguing that they'd obstruct the view from his course.
“Don't destroy your coastlines and your countryside with the monstrous turbines," Trump wrote Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond, according to the Independent. "Your country will become a third world wasteland that global investors will avoid." Trump lost that legal battle, and first of the wind turbines went up in April.
Most recently, Trump crossed a red line of sorts when the management of his Turnberry golf course banned Irn-Bru, an immensely popular soft drink in Scotland. The decision was reportedly made because Irn-Bru's orange color creates difficult-to-remove stains, leading one Scottish journalist to jokingly ask "how [Trump] can be allowed inside with that degree of fake tan."
If Trump's one-day trip to Scotland ends up happening, that'll eat up one-third of his total time in the United Kingdom, according to the Sun. Massive protests are planned in London during his time in the city, and one group of activists plans to fly a giant balloon depicting Trump as an orange baby in a diaper over London while he's there.