Donald Trump begins Scotland trip to open Golf course, meet UK leaders amid Epstein scandal and protests

US President Donald Trump headed to Scotland on Friday for a five-day visit, hoping to leave behind the chaos of Washington and the persistent questions over the handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files for what will be a mix of personal business and diplomacy.

Mr Trump will celebrate the opening of a new 18-hole course at Trump International Golf Links outside Aberdeen, which initially had been announced as the MacLeod Course after his mother, Mary Anne MacLeod, who was born in Scotland. He also plans to play at the Trump Turnberry course, which Trump bought in 2014, on the other side of Scotland.

Mr Trump has some business on the agenda, as well. He plans to meet with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who has spent months nurturing his relationship with Mr Trump.

Thousands of people, many of them supporters, gathered at Glasgow Prestwick Airport to catch a glimpse of Mr Trump’s arrival in Scotland.

Despite the warm welcome Friday, Mr Trump’s reception in Scotland may be rocky.

The Scots are generally not fans of Mr Trump, and protests were already planned for Saturday. A group called “Stop Trump Scotland” said it was organizing a “festival of resistance” against Mr Trump during the trip and has called on John Swinney, the first minister of Scotland, to cancel plans to meet with him.

“The people of Scotland don’t want to roll out a welcome mat for Donald Trump, whose government is accelerating the spread of climate breakdown and fascism around the world,” the protest group said in a statement.

A survey in February by research firm Ipsos found that 71 per cent of those polled in Scotland had an unfavorable opinion of him, versus 57 per cent of the broader British public.

Authorities said they were prepared for the demonstrations.

Even so, Scottish leaders are hoping to strengthen their bond with the United States during the trip.

“Scotland shares a strong friendship with the United States that goes back centuries. That partnership remains steadfast through economic, cultural and ancestral links — including of course, with the president himself,” Swinney said in a statement.

But Swinney, who endorsed Kamala Harris for president over Mr Trump, said he also plans to raise humanitarian issues with Mr Trump, including the plight of the people in the Gaza Strip.

“As first minister it is my responsibility to advance our interests, raise global and humanitarian issues of significant importance, including the unimaginable suffering we are witnessing in Gaza, and ensure Scotland’s voice is heard at the highest levels of government across the world,” he said.

Mr Trump is expected to discuss trade with Mr Starmer. In June, when Mr Trump was facing significant political pressure to sign trade deals after weeks of struggling to do so, he and Mr Starmer announced an agreement. The deal included lower tariffs on British cars, steel and aluminum, and aerospace equipment, lowering barriers on some British goods.

The US President is also expected to meet with Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, to discuss trade.

“Following a good call with @POTUS, we have agreed to meet in Scotland on Sunday to discuss transatlantic trade relations, and how we can keep them strong,” she wrote on the social platform X.

Charles Kupchan, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and professor of international affairs at Georgetown University, predicted that any major news announced during the trip would most likely pertain to trade.

“Given where we are in the tariff saga, if there’s a deliverable, it’s got to be a trade deliverable,” he said. “The deal that was struck with the U.K. was quite bare-bones. And so I do think they need to put some meat on those bones to make it look more credible.”

Mr Trump’s welcome in Scotland will almost certainly be much different from the one he received during the first major trip of his second term, when he visited Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates and was feted with the kind of honor and respect he has long desired.

But his decision to endorse support for both Ukraine and NATO may cut through the tension.

“The huge levels of anxiety that were unsettling Europe have to some extent dissipated over the last several weeks, mainly as a result of Trump’s pivot on Ukraine and then on NATO,” Kupchan said.

Mr Trump’s domestic troubles are already affecting the visit.

Dogged by outrage over his handling of the so-called Epstein files, the White House announced it would not allow reporters from the Wall Street Journal to be part of the traveling press pool for the Scotland trip.

Last week, the Journal published an article saying Mr Trump had sent Epstein, a convicted sex offender, a lewd birthday note in 2003. Mr Trump has denied composing or drawing it, and he has sued the Journal and the reporters for $10 billion.

In recent weeks, the Epstein story has dominated Washington in ways no one could have predicted at the start of the year.

Before boarding his flight to Scotland, Mr Trump chastised reporters for continuing to press him on the Epstein case. He urged the news media to ask about anything else besides his friendship with Epstein.

“People should really focus on how well the country is doing,” Mr Trump said, before rattling off a list of other rich and famous people who were friends with Epstein. “They don’t talk about them. They talk about me. I have nothing to do with the guy.”

He was also asked about whether he would pardon a former associate of Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking. Mr Trump told reporters he hadn’t “thought about” clemency for her but that he was “allowed to do it.” Maxwell was meeting for a second day with Justice Department officials interviewing her.

At a time when Mr Trump is drastically remaking the United States’ immigration policies and social welfare system and adding trillions to the national debt, the Epstein case has resonated with the public in ways other issues have not. Those issues will be waiting for him upon his return to Washington.

“I kind of see this as a kind of a low-risk trip,” Kupchan said of the Scotland visit. “And then he goes right back into the frying pan.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

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