DONALD Trump looks set to be snubbed by Nicola Sturgeon and David Cameron and greeted by protests when he visits Scotland at the end of the month.
The controversial presumptive Republican candidate for president of the United States of America will be in Ayrshire for the official grand re-opening of Trump Turnberry, the golf course he bought in April 2014.
His visit on June 24 means he will be in the country on the day the result of the referendum into the UK’s membership of the EU is announced.
Protests were organised within hours of Trump saying he would come to Scotland, with political parties, trade unions and campaign groups all planning to mobilise against the tycoon.
Former First Minister Alex Salmond said “every one of us” had an obligation to “impede [the] appalling prospect” of Trump becoming president.
“Trump is thoroughly bad news,” Salmond said. “His views are repellent, his investment claims exaggerated and his politics destructive. The thought of him as president of the United States should send a shiver down the spine of any decent person and therefore every one of us has an obligation to impede that appalling prospect in any way that we can. Thus David Cameron would be a fool to meet him. He would lend Trump credibility and further diminish his own.”
As well as opening his golf course, the candidate will also be looking to prove his diplomatic skills and show that he is an international statesman. However, both the First Minister and the Prime Minister say they cannot find space in their diaries to meet the billionaire politician.
It is the first time someone in the running to be president will have visited Scotland during a US election campaign, though as he has not been ratified by the Republican National Convention he is not officially the candidate. The electoral maths, however, mean it is unlikely if not impossible for anyone other than Trump to get the backing of the party.
A number of groups, including left wing political party RISE, have already said they will stage a protest outside the Ayrshire golf club. A new Scotland Against Trump Facebook group said they wanted to ”bring together the broadest possible mobilisation against Trump” and would have protests and demonstrations when the businessman comes to the country.
Trump, though, will likely not mind the protests, and has used similar demonstrations against him to his advantage in the campaign.
In a statement ahead of the opening Trump said: “It’s very exciting that one of the great resorts of the world, Turnberry, will be opening today after a massive £200 million investment.
“I own it and I am very proud of it. I look forward to attending the official opening of this great development on June 24.”
Trump says he has spent £200m refurbishing the course and the hotel, upgrading the rooms. It officially opened yesterday with a ceremony that saw 32 of the past captains of Turnberry Golf Club taking part in a ceremonial drive.
Early reviews of the course are positive, with National Club Golfer magazine saying: “It doesn’t get much better than this.”
As good as the course is, it is still not on the rotation of golf courses allowed to host the Open Championship.
The R&A, golf’s governing authority, had been expected to endorse Turnberry as host of the open in 2020, but Trump’s controversial remarks about Muslims, Mexicans, the Chinese and women saw the club’s chances kicked into the long grass.
Those remarks are also responsible for frosty relations between Trump and Sturgeon and Cameron.
The Prime Minister previously called Trump’s call for a ban on Muslims entering the US “divisive, stupid and wrong”.
In Scotland, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon revoked his status as a business ambassador and he was stripped of an honorary degree from Robert Gordon University (RGU) in Aberdeen.
A Scottish Government spokesman said: “The First Minister does not plan to meet Donald Trump on this visit.”
A Number 10 source said: “Candidates often come through the country. We are more than happy to meet him on that basis. There are no firm dates set up at the moment. There has been no formal contact.”
Senior Tory MP Sarah Wollaston tweeted: “Britain needs a @realDonaldTrump visit like it needs a bucket of cold sick. Fortunately there will be other news on June 24.”
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