Donald Trump’s visit to the U.K. drew large-scale protests in London and highly populated areas in Scotland, but in the small towns near his Turnberry property, residents mostly said the billionaire president was a welcome presence.
His purchase and renovation of the luxury golf property in 2014 stimulated the local economy, they said. Several groused sentiments that the protesters should, ‘Let the man get on with his life.’
Of course, there were grumblings about the cost of security, which is being borne by the national government, and Trump’s right-wing policies along the same lines as what he faces in the U.S.
Donald Trump’s visit to the U.K. drew large-scale protests in London and highly populated areas in Scotland, but in the small towns near his Turnberry property, residents mostly said the billionaire president was a welcome presence
President Donald Trump plays a round of golf at Trump Turnberry Luxury Collection Resort on Sunday
Hecklers went after Trump when he came close to them on Saturday, but he simply waved at them
And roughly two dozen anti-Trump demonstrators did show up Saturday morning to heckle him from a nearby beach while he golfed at his U.S.with his son Eric.
But Trump had his share of fans, too, with a handful of counter protesters planting themselves at a security checkpoint close to his South Ayrshire golf resort.
Artist Lorraine Loudoun was one of the supporters of the president who spent several hours outside of Trump Turnberry, holding up a self-designed ‘MAGA’ canvas.
Loudoun noted that Trump’s mother, Mary Anne MacLeod Trump, was Scottish by birth.
‘We just want to show a bit of support,’ she said of herself and the other pro-Trump Scots, who came independently, that day and found themselves on same corner at the edge of his property. ‘I wanted to show that somebody knows about MAGA — Make America Great Again –and show a bit of support. But obviously we’re not going to get very far.’
Police checkpoints at either end of the road that runs in front of Turnberry kept spectators of all agendas from reaching the president’s property on Saturday after a paragliding incident the evening before that the media has been front and center to witness.
An environmental activist flying a Greenpeace-branded microlight did three laps over Trump, the first of which the president was outside for, dangling a banner that said the golf loving president is ‘sub par’ at his job.
A club member commented later that the activist failed at his own joke, because a golfer would have to be below par on each hole to make it on the U.S. Open tour.
The incident meant that even media were blocked from the Turnberry viewpoint they’d stood at the night prior to watch the president arrive. It had provided full view of the hotel’s terrace, and long-lens cameras caught the president, and wife Melania, greeting hotel guests while viewing the sunset over Ailsa Craig island.
Media and protesters were henceforth confined to a parking lot below the hotel’s delivery entrance and a beach spot close enough to Trump’s Ailsa Craig golf course that demonstrators could shout at him as he played.
Some press seemingly managed to get closer, possibly from property owned by locals that have property within the security zone that gave them a better vantage point.
FORE: The president is seen golfing on Sunday before leaving his Turnberry property
I CAN MAKE IT: Some press managed to get close enough to the president to shoot his golf game on Sunday
Reporters and photographers captured Trump playing at Turnberry again on Sunday morning. The president was due to depart Turnberry late Sunday afternoon.
Despite road closures that prevented anyone from taking the most direct route through the neighboring areas, many residents of the Ayrshire area said they were unphased by Trump’s weekend trip, however.
‘It doesn’t bother me at all,’ one local gentleman told DailyMail.com. ‘I’ve been out in the house anyway all day painting.’
The started to say that the visit had ’caused a lot of upheaval,’ before another local woman jumped in to say, ‘You must be talking about Mr. Trump.’
‘He’s brought a lot of work to Turnberry,’ she said defensively.
She said his purchase of Turnberry had been a benefit to the local economy.
‘I was in Turnberry hotel before he took over…and it was disgusting. Now it is not. He’s spent a lot of money on it,’ the woman, Jan Parkes, said.
Parkes said she didn’t agree with the protesters, and commented: ‘I think people just like to moan.’
Another local woman passing by joined in to say, ‘They do like to moan, don’t they!’ She said the protest on Saturday was ‘nonsense.’
Parkes replied, ‘But they do! Instead of letting the man go on with it. So what?’
‘I think a lot of his policies are right. I wish Britain would stand by some of his policies,’ she told DailyMail.com. ‘To do what people are doing to him, whether it be down south or up here…let the man get on with his life. He’s president. He’s a businessman. Let’s be honest, he’s a big businessman.’
Another local, Tom Ross, told DailyMail.com, ‘As far as I’m concerned he’s welcome. I don’t have any political views on the man, but he’s quite welcome.
‘What’ he’s done for Scotland with I suppose the financial input that he’s putting into the golf courses and stuff like that, especially around this area, which there’s not a great deal of money around here in the winter.’
Givern resident Doug Rae also said that Trump has ‘created a lot of jobs’ in the area.
‘So I’m glad, cause we’re needing something in Givern. It’s pathetic.’
Rae, 67, said he was born and raised in Givern and was walking along one day and thought, ‘I’m kind of affronted to say I belong to here…If he brings something into the town, it’d be fine.
‘Good luck to the man,’ he said. ‘No, good for him. I’m glad he’s doing what he’s doing. I mean he stands up to them. And he is got a bit of Scottish in him. Well as we say, born in Scotland, you’re proud of it.’
Local resident Graham Henderson also commented, ‘He’s been good to the Ayrshire. He’s been good Scotland, for his, you call it Trump hotel and the golf course. I’ve not got an opinion against him.
‘He’s a good guy…I think he’s down well, and he’s never caused me any harm or nothing…and I think he’s done well for this area and Scotland.’
Henderson said he’s not fond of how Trump has ‘gone about in the kids have not been separated from their parents…I didn’t agree with that. That was one thing I didn’t agree with. The kids shouldn’t be separated from their mom and their dad.’
Yet he said, ‘Personally he’s done me no harm, and I know it’s all politics, and all the rest. There’s always politics in it.’
Family separation, the special counsel investigation, the Clintons, Trump’s fights with CNN correspondents, and the ‘golden showers’ dosser all came up as locals explained their views on the businessman-turned president.
‘It’s the most evil thing that’s happening, taking kids away from their parents,’ retiree Harry McEachan said.
McEahan waited for Trump to arrive at Turnberry on Friday night and held up an ‘abolish ICE sign’ that he said was ‘for the American audience’ as well as other Scottish-themed signs.
‘And people said to me, you wouldn’t know which golf course he’ll go to. And that’s easy, he’ll go to both, because he’s here to publicize his bloody business, as well as run everybody into the ground, and then go to Helsinki to lick the bum of Putin.’
He was referring to Trump’s summit on Monday with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
McEahan contended that Trump has ‘not shown any interest in crooked votes, manipulation’ in the 2016 election.
‘I would to see him in the witness stand, taking oath in court as the accused. I would love to see that happen. It would make my year,’ Scottish businessman Jim McColm chimed in.
McEahan invoked special counsel Robert Mueller and said: The good thing is that Mueller,has been an honest man all his career. And America’s depending on honest men.’
McColm asserted that he’s apolitical. However, he said, ‘I’m insulted that Donald Trump is trying to tell the world he’s very popular in Scotland. He’s not popular in Scotland.’
‘When Donald Trump spits out in the media that he’s going to Scotland because he’s loved by all the people, I’m sorry, what a load of baloney. I don’t detest the man I just feel sorry for him, I think hes insecure.’
Trump-supporting Loudon insisted Saturday outside of another entrance to Turnberry that she’s not political, either.
‘But he’s really doing everything that he said he was going to do. I think he’s gonna make your country great again. I think the Clintons and Obama totally ruined it, even though its portrayed the other way around.’
‘Like, He didn’t need to take that job. The guy is a billionaire. He’s got his hotels, he’s got his businesses. He’s 70-something years old,’ she said. ‘He knew he was gonna get hated as soon as he even put himself up to be a president.’
She said the mainstream media in America ‘basically turn everything upside down and are creating this sort of hared towards him that is not justified.’
‘In America, he’s sorting America out. When he said he was going to drain the swamp, in the past 15 months that he’s been your president, he’s actually doing that.
She told DailyMail.com, ‘You guys are so lucky, you’ve got this man. He’s amazing.’