Edinburgh/London — US President Donald Trump, dogged by questions about his ties to disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, heads to Scotland on Friday for a trip that will mix golf with politics mostly out of public view.
Trump plans to visit his golf resort in Turnberry on Scotland’s east coast, where he will meet British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday, before heading to his sprawling golf property 320km away near Aberdeen in the west.
As part of the visit, he will open a second 18-hole course on the Aberdeen property named in honour of his mother, Mary Anne MacLeod, who was born and raised on a Scottish island before emigrating to the US.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt this week said the trip was intended as a “working visit that will include a bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Starmer to refine the historic US-UK trade deal.”
The overseas travel comes as Trump faces the biggest domestic political crisis of his second term in office. Allies and opponents alike have criticised his administration’s handling of investigative files related to Epstein’s criminal charges and the circumstances of his 2019 death in prison.
The issue has caused a rare breach with some of Trump’s most loyal Make America Great Again (Maga) supporters, and the majority of Americans and Trump’s Republicans say they believe the government is hiding details on the case, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling.
White House officials, frustrated by the ongoing focus on the Epstein saga, are hoping the controversy dies down while Trump is abroad, one person familiar with the matter said.
Deepen ties
The trip, initially billed as a private visit, gives Trump and Starmer a chance to deepen their already warm relationship, with key issues on the agenda to include ending Russia's war in Ukraine, British and US sources said.
British officials have been heartened by what they see as a clear shift in Trump's rhetoric on Ukraine and Russia in recent weeks, a British source said.
The deteriorating situation in Gaza is also likely to come up. On Thursday, Starmer said he would hold an emergency call with France and Germany over what he called the “unspeakable and indefensible” suffering and starvation being reported there, and called on Israel to allow aid to enter the Palestinian enclave.
Gaza health authorities say more than 100 people have died from starvation, most of them in recent weeks. Human rights groups have said mass starvation is spreading even as tonnes of food and other supplies sit untouched just outside the territory.
Since being elected last year, Starmer has prioritised good relations with Trump, stressing the importance of Britain’s defence and security alliance with the US and being careful to avoid openly criticising Trump’s tariff policies.
That approach helped Britain seal the first tariff-reduction deal with the US in May, which reaffirmed quotas and tariff rates on British vehicles and eliminated tariffs on the UK’s aerospace sector, but left steel tariffs in place.
Starmer is expected to press for lower steel tariffs, but sources close to the matter said it was unclear if any breakthrough was possible during Trump’s visit.
Trump also is expected to meet Scottish leader John Swinney, who publicly backed Democratic candidate Kamala Harris in the 2024 US presidential election, but no details have been released by either side.
Trump has described Scotland as a “very special place” and made a similar trip there in 2016 during his first run for the presidency, but he will not necessarily get a warm welcome.
About 70% of Scots have an unfavourable opinion of Trump, while 18% have a favourable opinion, an Ipsos poll in March found.
Scottish police are girding for protests on Saturday in both Aberdeen and in Edinburgh, the country’s capital.
Trump will return to Britain from September 17-19 for a state visit hosted by King Charles. It will make Trump the first world leader in modern times to undertake two state visits to Britain. The late Queen Elizabeth hosted him at Buckingham Palace for a three-day state visit in June 2019.
Reuters
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