DONALD Trump has claimed that the late Sir Sean Connery was responsible for getting the necessary permissions for the construction of a “big development in Scotland”.

The current US president said Connery stepped in when he was “having a very hard time getting approvals” for a Scots development.

According to Trump, Connery said simply: “Let him build the damn thing.”

After that, Trump said, “everything went swimmingly”.

The US president tweeted: “The legendary actor, 007 Sean Connery, has past [sic] on to even greener fairways.

READ MORE: 'It was a rare privilege': Alex Salmond pens personal tribute to Sean Connery

“He was quite a guy, and a tough character. I was having a very hard time getting approvals for a big development in Scotland when Sean stepped in and shouted, 'Let him build the damn thing'.

“That was all I needed, everything went swimmingly from there.

“He was so highly regarded and respected in Scotland and beyond that years of future turmoil was avoided. Sean was a great actor and an even greater man.

“Sincere condolences to his family!”

Trump did not name the development in question, but he may have been talking about the Turnberry golf course in Ayrshire.

In 2018, Trump told then prime minister Theresa May that Connery had helped get the approvals for the Turnberry course.

At the time, the Sunday Times reported Trump had said: "I met James Bond and I got all my approvals.

"James Bond was better than my approvals lawyer."

There was no evidence to support Trump’s claim at the time, and although Connery was approached for comment, no response from the Scot was reported.

Trump spent $60 million on the property in 2014. In October 2016 his representatives told the BBC that around £150m had been spent developing the site.

However, accounts filed with Companies House revealed the organisation had invested just £18m by the end of 2015.

READ MORE: James Bond legend Sean Connery dies at the age of 90

Trump may also have been referring to his Trump International Golf Links, Scotland, which opened in Aberdeenshire in 2012 after a battle around planning permits.

Initially rejected by local councillors, the plans were called in by the Scottish Government and approved in 2008. Work began on the site in summer 2010.

Connery himself was known to be passionate about the game of golf.

He took up the game for a famous scene in Goldfinger, in which Bond takes on the titular villain at Stoke Park Golf Club in Hertfordshire.

In his 2008 book Being A Scot, Connery wrote: “I never had a hankering to play golf, despite growing up in Scotland just down the road from Bruntsfield Links, which is one of the oldest golf courses in the world. It wasn't until I was taught enough golf to look as though I could outwit the accomplished golfer Gert Frobe in Goldfinger that I got the bug.

“I began to take lessons on a course near the Pinewood film studios, and was immediately hooked on the game. Soon it would nearly take over my life.

“I began to see golf as a metaphor for living, for in golf you are basically on your own, competing against yourself and always trying to do better. If you cheat, you will be the loser, because you are cheating yourself.”