Trump in Scotland to open golf resort

The day of Britain’s vote to decide its future with the European Union, will also be marked by another unusual event: the arrival of Donald Trump in the United Kingdom. 

The presumptive Republican nominee, who has said if he were British he “would be inclined to leave" the EU, will touch down in Scotland, just as the ballots of the historic decision are being counted. 

And in a further departure from convention, Trump will not use this first visit since becoming a presidential candidate to glad-hand political leaders of America's closest ally.

Instead he will open a golf resort.  

Flying to Prestwick, Trump will head straight straight to Turnberry in Ayrshire, for the unveiling of his revamped hotel and golf course the following day.

On Friday the real estate mogul will take part in the ceremonial cutting of the ribbon at the luxury resort, that Trump says he has spent some €260m in refurbishing.

Mr Trump will then fly north to Aberdeenshire on Saturday to visit another smaller golf course that he opened in 2012 after he won a battle to flatten coastal dunes that had been protected for their ecological rarity. 

“Mr. Trump will be opening Trump Turnberry, one of the finest resorts in the world," said Hope Hicks, a spokeswoman for his presidential campaign, describing the trip as ‘very brief’.

But for all the efforts by his campaign to bill this as purely a business trip, Trump has ramped up the publicity surrounding the journey by promising to comment on the referendum.

The real estate mogul will be travelling with a media detail and is scheduled to give a press conference on Friday, during which he has said he will make his remarks.

He has already become one of the few foreign political figures to publicly weigh in on the crucial vote. In May he said he wouldn't give a formal opinion, but then couldn't resist sharing his thoughts: “I would personally be more inclined to leave, for a lot of reasons, like having a lot less bureaucracy,” he said. 

Trump and his aides see the Scotland visit as a chance to showcase his far-flung business empire and job-creating abilities.

Aides said the trip also reinforces his ancestral ties to Scotland – his mother is Scottish – and his love of family, with his children playing an important role in his business dealings.

But despite Trump's professed love for the area, his imminent arrival in Scotland has already sparked protests there. 

Two neighbours of Trump's Aberdeenshire golf course, David Milne and Michael Forbes – a salmon fisherman who refused to sell his land to Trump and who the mogul subsequently labelled ‘a disgrace’ have erected Mexican flags in their homes.

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee has said that if he becomes president he plans to build a wall along the border separating the United States and Mexico.

Last year he lost his status as an honorary ambassador for Scottish business and was stripped of an honorary degree from Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, for his inflammatory comments about Muslims.

Following the attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, in California, Trump called for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States”.