Alistair Grant and Alison Campsie discuss US President Donal Trump trip to Scotland and the opening if Trump International Golf Links The New Course and The Greatest Holes
00:00Hello, I'm Alison Grant, the political editor of The Scotsman.
00:03I'm Alison Campsey, reporter with The Scotsman.
00:05And we've been here at Trump International in Aberdeenshire for the grand opening of Donald Trump's new golf course here.
00:11Alison, what did you make of that opening ceremony? It was quite a surreal day, I think it's fair to say.
00:16What did you make of what happened and seeing Donald Trump tee off?
00:19Yeah, I think surreal is probably a good word to describe it.
00:22I mean, I've been here several times before and I think there's always that feeling when you're coming up the drive,
00:26you never really know what to expect. And I think that was definitely true today.
00:31We knew that we were heading to a grandstand. We knew that there was going to be an official ribbon cutting.
00:37But to see sort of Donald Trump kind of walking up that stadium with the pipe band following him.
00:43Yeah, that was that was a sight to behold.
00:46He kind of walked up behind the grandstand in the back.
00:49You could see the wind turbines or the windmills, as he always calls them.
00:53I wish he would stop doing that. But he walked up past the wind turbine in front of the assembled crowd,
01:00which was a mix of press and his VIP guests for the day, some of which played a four ball with him
01:07as he sort of christened the course, if you like.
01:10It's quite a personal thing, I felt.
01:11Yeah.
01:12It's a family thing, a family affair, I suppose, by its nature.
01:18His sons were there, Eric and Don Jr. and their families.
01:24And I mean, they very much kind of spoke of this course being the kind of heart and soul of the Trump family
01:30and how it's been such a long time in the making and the effort that's gone into it.
01:35I'm sure it was described as the kind of Mona Lisa of golf courses.
01:40And all the time you have these very kind of like emotive speeches from the family.
01:45You know, Eric Trump was saying, you know, he loved his dad and, you know, he's so proud of his dad.
01:51He's having a hell of a time kind of sorting out the world and sorting out America.
01:55But still, he was here in Aberdeenshire to sort of christen this course.
01:59So, and all the time, you know, as we were waiting for him, there was like quite a bizarre soundtrack.
02:06Yeah, I think it was a song to play at his rallies.
02:08I think it was a number of hits blasting over the speaker.
02:10Absolutely.
02:11It was like sort of, yeah, it was like a sort of rally, wasn't it?
02:13Sort of great American, all-American hits, you know.
02:17I particularly like Michael Jackson's Thriller when that came in.
02:21That was quite good.
02:22I was quite struck by, you know, he was talking a little bit of love for Scotland.
02:25And at one point, he asked the First Minister, John Swinney, to stand up and called him a terrific guy, a special guy.
02:31Yeah, yeah.
02:31Talked about how he loved golf and he loved the people.
02:34Yeah, that's right.
02:35So, it kind of seems to have formed a, on the face of a quite unlikely relationship with John Swinney there.
02:39Well, sure, but as we were speaking earlier, they dined last night.
02:43We had langoustine beef and three desserts, I believe, and we're sitting…
02:47A trio of desserts.
02:48A trio of desserts.
02:49And we're sitting next to each other at dinner, is that right?
02:52Yeah, so I think it was Swinney on one side of Donald Trump and Prime Minister Keir Starmer on the other side.
02:58And we're told that they had, you know, dinner lasted a couple of hours.
03:01I think they had quite detailed conversations.
03:03Yeah, so it wasn't like an awkward dinner by any sort of sense of the imagination, I think.
03:07And, yeah, I mean, Donald Trump described John Swinney as a terrific guy.
03:11So, that seemed kind of like maybe an unlikely pairing because John Swinney, we know, is quite reserved.
03:16Donald Trump is not, but they seem to get on fine.
03:18Yeah, and I think the important thing from John Swinney's point of view is that he managed to raise things like whiskey tariffs.
03:23And there seems to be a little bit of optimism behind the scenes that this is something that wasn't on Donald Trump's radar before he came on this trip.
03:29He said that during the press conference in Turnberry, that it wasn't something that he was aware of as being a problem.
03:35And I think now he knows it's a problem.
03:36That kind of window of opportunity has opened for talks to maybe make some progress there.
03:42Because ultimately, the Scottish government does not want to see tariffs on whiskey.
03:45And it's an industry that's worth so much money to Scotland.
03:48I think it is our biggest export.
03:50So, I think from their point of view, they'll come away quite positive there.
03:53Yeah, great.
03:54And what about oil and gas as well?
03:55Is that something that's come up?
03:57Well, it's something that Donald Trump has raised.
03:59I think we knew his opinions on oil and gas, on North Sea Oil.
04:02But he took to his social media channel, Truth Social, this morning, just shortly before the opening ceremony, actually.
04:09And he was talking about how the North Sea is a treasure chest.
04:13There's vast wealth in it.
04:14But the taxation system isn't helping.
04:16And he's saying they've got to incentivise the drillers.
04:19So, it'll be seen as quite a criticism of Keir Starmer's tax regime, that kind of windfall tax.
04:24The windfall tax, yeah.
04:25So, that will obviously be a big issue.
04:27And the other thing that both Starmer and Swinney raised was, of course, Gaza in this kind of international situation.
04:33So, although it is a private trip, there's been a lot of business as well.
04:37And I think that's quite unusual, really.
04:39Yeah, it's been a strange mix of elements this trip, I think.
04:43And you've had this sort of very family-oriented event here today, which, you know, really is ultimately like a massive kind of bit of publicity for this golf course.
04:53The kind of world media is here on the back of the political chat, but, you know, they're here as well to see this golf course opening up.
05:01So, quite a strange mix of elements, I would say, in this trip.
05:06And so, in your assessment, Alfred, like, how do you think Donald Trump has done on this trip?
05:11There's been so many topics and really important issues covered.
05:17How would you rate him?
05:19Well, I mean, I think he's obviously, there was so much publicity around this.
05:23It was, I think it was probably a bit of nervousness from officials, both in the UK, the UK government and the Scottish government, about how it might go.
05:30And I think from their point of view, from Keir Starmer's point of view, from John Swinney's point of view, they'll feel pretty positive about this.
05:35They've managed to raise issues that are important to them.
05:37The press conference yesterday with Keir Starmer went on for more than an hour.
05:40It was such a long press conference.
05:42But, you know, a wide variety of topics covered.
05:45I think Keir Starmer will be quite happy with it.
05:46I think John Swinney will be quite happy.
05:48Yeah.
05:48With the reception that he's got.
05:50Well, that's good.
05:50I mean, they've both managed to get across these important points, Gaza, for example, which they were desperate to get their view across to Trump about this.
05:58And they've had the platform to do that.
06:00And they've spoken publicly about that.
06:02Yeah.
06:02And he's very much seen as pretty much the only person who can really have influence of Israel there.
06:06Yeah.
06:07But there'll be lots of articles on the Scotland's website about this.
06:10I know you're doing a colour piece from today.
06:12I'm currently writing analysis.
06:13We've got news coverage online.
06:15I mean, just to give people a bit of an insight into this as well, we both went through kind of airport-style security this morning.
06:21Had to meet in a car park in Bridge of Dawn at 6 a.m.
06:24It's been a very surreal day.
06:26But for all the latest, stay tuned to the Scotland's website.
