Police in Scotland braced for large-scale protests if Trump visits new golf course

Police in Scotland are gearing up for a possible visit by Donald Trump later this month that is expected to take in his golf resort in Aberdeenshire.

The long-rumoured visit is not expected to include a meeting with King Charles, despite earlier suggestions the US president could meet the monarch at either Balmoral or Dumfries House in Ayrshire.

It is thought Trump will officially open a new 18-hole golf course at his resort on the North Sea coast at Menie, north of Aberdeen, being named in honour of his mother, Mary Anne MacLeod Trump. He is not expected to visit London during the trip.

The assistant chief constable Emma Bond said on Wednesday: “Planning is under way for a potential visit to Scotland later this month by the president of the United States. While official confirmation has not yet been made, it is important that we prepare in advance for what would be a significant policing operation.”

Preparations are already under way for a rare second state visit to the UK in September, which would involve a state dinner mooted for Windsor Castle and possibly an address to parliament by Trump.

Bond made clear Police Scotland was braced for large-scale protests. There were demonstrations in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen during Trump’s last official visit as president in 2018, with protesters flying a paraglider over the site during his visit to Turnberry.

Controversy around his policies has escalated sharply since then. Various people have been arrested for allegedly causing criminal damage to holes and buildings at Turnberry earlier this year.

Trump has made numerous visits to his course in Aberdeenshire, which he bought as a small country estate and opened in 2012, and several trips to his far more prestigious resort at Turnberry in Ayrshire.

Mary Anne MacLeod Trump was born in Stornoway on the Isle of Lewis, and Trump has frequently claimed that has given him a close bond to Scotland. He has visited Lewis once and spent little over a minute in her former home.

Trump and his son Eric broke ground on the MacLeod course at Menie in 2023 and it has since been completed. Eric Trump was in Scotland in March to inspect progress, when he also met John Swinney, Scotland’s first minister.

Traditionally, US presidents are not offered state visits in their second term, but the political and diplomatic case for doing so this year, given the trade wars Trump has unleashed and his quixotic stance on Russia’s war in Ukraine, is seen by Downing Street to be overwhelming.

It is thought the proposal for Trump to informally meet Charles in Scotland this month, something mooted in the letter officially offering him the state visit, was discarded after it become clear their schedules made such a meeting impossible.