TURNBERRY, Scotland (AP) — A roving press conference. Reporters piling into golf carts and running along fairways trying to keep up. A protester scattering golf balls marked with swastikas.
The last time Donald Trump travelled to Scotland was in 2016 around the time of the Brexit vote and shortly after he became the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. He created a media maelstrom as he held court with the press, compared pro-Brexit voters to his own supporters and mixed campaigning with business promotion in a way that was signature Trump.
This time, his trip is likely to be less dramatic, as he spends the weekend out of the spotlight preparing for his high-stakes summit with Russian president Vladimir Putin.
Knowing Trump, there’s likely to be some golf on the schedule as well.
Trump has long professed a special connection to Scotland, the land of his mother’s birth. He owns two championship-level golf resorts in the country, including the seaside Turnberry.
“President Trump knows this country probably better than any president in recent history,” Trump’s ambassador to the United Kingdom, Robert ‘Woody’ Johnson, told reporters ahead of Trump’s trip.
Trump’s mother, born Mary McLeod, was born in Stornoway, a place Trump has described as “serious Scotland.” He says his mother adored the Queen and the “pomp and circumstance” of events like royal weddings.
“Any time the Queen was on television, my mother wanted to watch it,” he told The Sun newspaper in an interview this week.
Trump: Brexit Happened Because of ‘Very Bad’ Immigration https://t.co/6hvy2JQPR9
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) July 13, 2018
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