Donald Trump, the frontrunner in the race to be US Republican presidential candidate, will visit Scotland on 24 June, the day after the UK’s referendum on whether it should stay in the European Union.
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It is the second Scottish golf resort the tycoon has launched following the opening of Trump International Golf Links Scotland in Balmedie, Aberdeenshire, in 2012.
The presumptive Republican nominee for the White House will arrive in Britain on June 24, the day after the crunch referendum on European Union membership – making it unlikely he will meet David Cameron.
The golf course and most rooms in the hotel have now re-opened following a £200m refurbishment. It features a £3,500-a-night presidential suite and, from August this year, the Donald J Trump ballroom – “the most luxurious meeting facility anywhere in Europe” according to his publicists.
He said: “Very exciting that one of the great resorts of the world, Turnberry, will be opening today after a massive £200 million investment”.
The two men have tangled from across an ocean, with Cameron characterizing Trump’s proposal to ban Muslims coming to the U.S.as “stupid”, and the presumptive Republican presidential nominee predicting recently that “it looks like we’re not going to have a very good relationship” if he wins the White House.
The protests are being co-ordinated by Jonathon Shafi, from the left-wing alliance Rise, who organised an occupation of Trump hotels earlier this year.
Although Mr Trump has the votes necessary to win his party’s nomination he will not be officially chosen until the Republican convention in Cleveland, Ohio, in the middle of July.
Cameron has been critical of Trump’s call for temporarily banning Muslims from entering the United States because of terror concerns, calling the proposal “wrong and divisive”.
However, with Trump gaining in the polls, it begs one to wonder whether British calls to ban him will gain more traction should he actually become president.
A Number 10 source said: ‘Candidates often come through the country.
However, the Prime Minister did add that he would be prepared to meet him if he visited the UK.
Cameron later said he would be “happy to” meet with Trump, but reiterated that he thinks the presumptive GOP standard-bearer’s remarks on banning Muslims are “a very risky thing to say”.
But he said he disagreed with those saying Mr Trump should be barred from the United Kingdom: ‘I think his remarks are divisive, stupid and wrong. He told the Hollywood Reporter in an interview published Wednesday, “Oh yeah, I think they should leave”. I don’t know whether this will happen this time.
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But First Minister Nicola Sturgeon is set to snub Trump during his trip.
