By GEORGIA EDKINS, SCOTTISH ASSOCIATE EDITOR FOR DAILY MAIL AND THE MAIL ON SUNDAY
Donald Trump plans to visit Scotland next month for the first time since his victory in the US election, MailOnline can reveal.
The American president and his team have pencilled in the trip to visit his three Scottish golf courses before the end of July.
It comes after Mr Trump was hoping to informally meet with the King this summer at one of his Scottish residences, Balmoral or Dumfries House, ahead of an unprecedented second State Visit likely to take place in September.
It will inevitably increase speculation that the pair could meet in the summer, but it is understood that their diaries do not align.
Buckingham Palace is reported to be keen to ensure that the King, who is recovering from cancer, has some ring-fenced downtime.
MailOnline understands security services are preparing for Air Force One to fly into Prestwick Airport, in Ayrshire, in the final two weeks of next month.
A ring of steel will be thrown around the US president amid anticipated protests which could even surpass his last presidential visit in 2018.
Thousands of Scots took to the streets in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen to oppose the former Apprentice TV star’s visit during his first stint in office.
The American President plans to visit his three Scottish golf courses before the end of July
Mr Trump may make time to check in on his new resort in Aberdeenshire, which is named in honour of his Lewis-born mother, Mary Anne MacLeod
However, with tensions running high after the US military’s audacious attack on Iran’s nuclear capabilities, police may have to cope with a fierce backlash.
Mr Trump’s Turnberry golf course in Ayrshire was vandalised by pro-Palestine protesters in March and was the site of an infamous one-woman protest by the late Scottish comedian Janey Godley, who held up a rude sign on his arrival, in 2016.
The US president will likely visit Turnberry and his controversial course in Aberdeen, Trump International, which environmentalists claim has destroyed one of the world’s rarest sand dune systems.
Mr Trump may make time to check in on his new resort, the MacLeod Trump International Golf Links course, also in Aberdeenshire, which is named in honour of his Lewis-born mother, Mary Anne MacLeod.
It is set to open before mid-August.
The trip – which could be cancelled at any minute due to volatility in the Middle East and domestic US priorities – could be an opportunity for the president to heap further pressure on golf bosses to hold The Open at Turnberry.
A ring of steel will be thrown around the President by security services after a series of protests against him, including pro-Palestine vandals who targeted his Turnberry course
They wrote ‘Gaza is not for sale’ on the golf course, which Mr Trump hopes will host The Open Championship
Mr Trump has repeatedly asked Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer about hosting the tournament at the course, which he bought in 2014 for £46 million, but the organisers have yet to concede to his demands.
Eric Trump, the president’s son and overseer of his golfing empire, remains optimistic. He said recently: ‘Turnberry is considered to be the best golf course in the world by the players, the writers, the spectators and the entire golfing community.’
He added: ‘If we get the call, and I sincerely hope we do, I promise the Royal and Ancient [the Open organisers] that we will be the best hosts The Open Championship has ever seen.’
Next month’s planned visit, which will mark his first since Mr Trump was elected into office for the second time, will likely enrage his opponents.
The Scottish Greens launched a ‘Dump Trump’ petition after it was revealed that he would be invited for second State Visit this year, which was signed by more than 6,000 people.
The online petition said the president was not welcome in Scotland as he presents ‘a clear and present danger to our climate, peace and human rights around the world’.
It is not known if Mr Trump will meet with First Minister John Swinney, who was quick to condemn the president in the wake of his heated exchange in the Oval Office with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky earlier this year.
It has been mooted that the US president could meet again with Sir Keir Starmer while in the UK – although officials have not confirmed this – and may go on to follow up with European heads of state after meeting with them at the Nato summit at the Hague in the Netherlands last week.
