Trump hails Swinney as ‘terrific guy' at Aberdeenshire golf course opening
The Scottish Government said the SNP leader and the US President discussed the situation in Gaza, and posed for photographs in front of a saltire and the Stars and Stripes.
READ MORE
Trump to open new golf course on final day in Scotland
Trump hints at whisky deal as he talks of 'great love' for Scotland during visit
Bagpipes, ballrooms and bluster: the day Trump came to Turnberry
In a short speech before cutting the ribbon on the first tee, Mr Trump asked Mr Swinney to stand up.
"The First Minister is here. John, would you stand up? John Swinney is a terrific guy who loves golf, loves the people of this country, and we really appreciated it. Thank you for everything, John."
The pair had met on Monday night as part of a business dinner at the course, which was also attended by Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar.
During the ceremony, Mr Trump also spoke about Sean Connery's support for his Menie course, saying the James Bond star's backing helped overcome planning issues.
The President said: "This has been an unbelievable development.
"The land, they said it couldn't get zoned, it was an impossibility.
"And Sean Connery said, 'Let the bloody bloke build his golf course'.
"Once he said that everything came into line. John and I were talking about that last night."
(Image: Colin Mearns/NQ) Mr Trump was the first to tee off. He said he would have a quick game before returning to Washington to "put out fires all over the world".
"We started with a beautiful piece of land, but we made it much more beautiful.
"The area has really welcomed us. If you remember at the beginning there wasn't quite a welcome, but it wasn't bad.
"But with time they liked us more and more, now they love us and we love them."
Mr Trump added: "I look forward to playing it today.
"We'll play it very quickly and then I go back to DC and we put out fires all over the world.
"We did one yesterday – you know we stopped the war. We've stopped about five wars.
"That's much more important than playing golf. As much as I like it, it's much more important."
READ MORE
Donald Trump responds to John Swinney's new plan for independence vote
Train operator to extend London to Edinburgh services to Glasgow
Cost of investigation into SNP finances soars to £2.7 million
The President has played a number of rounds of golf during his Scottish trip, spending time at his other resort in Turnberry.
He held a bilateral with Sir Keir at the South Ayrshire course on Monday, where he also held a lengthy press conference.
There, the President spoke of his "great love" for Scotland and said he wanted to see the nation "thrive".
He was asked about Mr Swinney's plan for a second vote on the constitution.
The First Minister said on Monday that the precedent set by the [[SNP]]'s 2011 election victory, when they won an unprecedented majority in Holyrood, would break the "logjam".
He said there should be a "legal referendum recognised by all" on Scottish independence if the [[SNP]] manages the same feat at next year's [[Holyrood]] election.
"We demonstrated how we break the logjam in the past, by electing a majority of SNP MSPs in 2011, and that led to an independence referendum in 2014," he told reporters.
He invited supporters of independence to back his party in the constituency vote and to "demand independence" in the regional vote.
Asked about the First Minister's proposal, the President said he did not want to "get involved" in Britain's domestic politics.
"We got enough politics of our own," he added.
He also claimed he had correctly predicted the result of the 2014 referendum, and suggested there should be a sizeable gap between votes.
He told journalists: "I do say that when they made that deal, somebody said that it was – and I remember this very distinctly, I said, 'Could they do this all the time?' – there was a little bit of a restriction, like 50 or 75 years before you could take another vote. Because, you know, a country can't go through that too much."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
3 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Senate heads home with no deal to speed confirmations as irate Trump tells Schumer to 'go to hell'
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate is leaving Washington Saturday night for its monthlong August recess without a deal to advance dozens of President Donald Trump's nominees, calling it quits after days of contentious bipartisan negotiations and Donald Trump posting on social media that Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer can 'GO TO HELL!' Without a deal in hand, Republicans say they may try to change Senate rules when they return in September to speed up the pace of confirmations. Trump has been pressuring senators to move quickly as Democrats blocked more nominees than usual this year, denying any fast unanimous consent votes and forcing roll calls on each one, a lengthy process that can take several days per nominee. 'I think they're desperately in need of change," Senate Majority Leader John Thune said of Senate rules Saturday after negotiations with Chuck Schumer and Trump broke down. "I think that the last six months have demonstrated that this process, nominations is broken. And so I expect there will be some good robust conversations about that.' The latest standoff comes as Democrats and Republicans have gradually escalated their obstruction of the other party's executive branch and judicial nominees over the last two decades, and as Senate leaders have incrementally changed Senate rules to speed up confirmations — and make them less bipartisan. In 2013, Democrats changed Senate rules for lower court judicial nominees to remove the 60-vote threshold for confirmations as Republicans blocked President Barack Obama's judicial picks. In 2017, Republicans did the same for Supreme Court nominees as Democrats tried to block Trump's nomination of Justice Neil Gorsuch. Trump has been pressuring Senate Republicans for weeks to cancel the August recess and grind through dozens of his nominations as Democrats have slowed the process. But Republicans hoped to make a deal with Democrats instead, and came close several times over the last few days as the two parties and the White House negotiated over moving a large tranche of nominees in exchange for reversing some of the Trump administration's spending cuts on foreign aid, among other issues. But it was clear that there would be no agreement when Trump attacked Schumer on social media Saturday evening and told them to pack it up and go home. 'Tell Schumer, who is under tremendous political pressure from within his own party, the Radical Left Lunatics, to GO TO HELL!' Trump posted on Truth Social. 'Do not accept the offer, go home and explain to your constituents what bad people the Democrats are, and what a great job the Republicans are doing, and have done, for our Country.' Thune said afterward that there were 'several different times' when the two sides thought they had a deal, but in the end 'we didn't close it out.' It's the first time in recent history that the minority party hasn't allowed at least some quick confirmations. Thune has already kept the Senate in session for more days, and with longer hours, this year to try and confirm as many of Trump's nominees as possible. But Democrats had little desire to give in without the spending cut reversals or some other incentive, even though they too were eager to skip town after several long months of work and bitter partisan fights over legislation. 'We have never seen nominees as flawed, as compromised, as unqualified as we have right now,' Schumer said Saturday.
Yahoo
3 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Peace offering? Donald Trump's Nobel obsession
A craving for international prestige, a decade-long Obama rivalry and perhaps a dash of provocation: a mercurial melange of factors is at play in Donald Trump's obsession with the Nobel Peace Prize. "It's well past time that President Trump was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on July 31, prompting reactions of disbelief and sarcasm from the Republican leader's opponents. Since his January 20 return to power, the US president "has brokered, on average, one peace deal or ceasefire per month," Leavitt said, citing as examples his mediations between India and Pakistan; Cambodia and Thailand; Egypt and Ethiopia; Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC); Serbia and Kosovo; and others. His leading spokeswoman also mentioned Iran, where Trump ordered US strikes against the Islamic republic's nuclear facilities, as evidence of decisions Leavitt claims have contributed to world peace. She made no mention of the conflict in Ukraine, which Trump pledged multiple times to end on "day one" of his term, or the war in Gaza, which rumbles on and for which the US supplies Israel with weapons. - Pakistan, Israel - For some foreign leaders, mentioning the prestigious award has become a sign of diplomatic goodwill toward an American president who envisions himself as a peacemaker. Pakistan nominated Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize, as did Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. During an early July meeting at the White House, a journalist asked the presidents of Liberia, Senegal, Mauritania, Guinea-Bissau, and Gabon whether Trump deserved the award. Basking in the flattering responses from the African leaders, a smiling Trump said: "We could do this all day long." Tens of thousands of people can offer a nomination to the Nobel committee, including lawmakers, ministers, certain university professors, former laureates and members of the committee themselves. Nominations are due by January 31, with the announcement coming in October -- this year on the 10th of the month. Law professor Anat Alon-Beck, who is an Israeli-American, submitted Trump's name to the committee's five members, who were appointed by the Norwegian Parliament. The assistant professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Law told AFP she did so because of the "extraordinary leadership" and "strategic brilliance" he has shown, in her opinion, in advancing peace and securing the release of hostages held in the Gaza Strip. - 'Never' getting the Nobel - For some, the prospect of handing the prize to someone who has upended the international order is untenable. "Nominating Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize is like entering a hyena in a dog show," US history and politics researcher Emma Shortis wrote on news site The Conversation. "Of course Trump does not deserve it." The American president disagrees. "I deserve it, but they will never give it to me," Trump told reporters in February as he hosted Netanyahu at the White House, lamenting not ticking the Nobel box in his life. "No, I won't get a Nobel Peace Prize no matter what I do, including Russia/Ukraine, and Israel/Iran, whatever those outcomes may be," Trump griped on his Truth Social platform in June. "But the people know, and that's all that matters to me!" Trump is well-known as someone who is particularly fond of accolades and prizes, Garret Martin, a professor of international relations at American University, told AFP, "so he would welcome this major international recognition." And since the beginning of his presidential ambitions 10 years ago, "he has put himself in opposition to Barack Obama, who famously won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009," Martin added. The prize awarded to the Democratic former president, barely nine months after he took office, sparked heated debate -- and continues to do so. "If I were named Obama I would have had the Nobel Prize given to me in 10 seconds," Trump bellyached in October 2024, during the final stretch of the presidential campaign. - 338 candidates - Three other US presidents have also been so honored: Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, and Jimmy Carter. The prize was also awarded to Henry Kissinger in 1973 for his efforts to help end the war in Vietnam. The choice of the one-time US secretary of state was heavily criticized. The full list of Nobel Peace Prize nominees is confidential -- except for individual announcements by sponsors -- but their number is made public. In 2025, there are 338 nominees. Some betting sites have Trump in second place to win, behind Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. aue-mlm/aks
Fox News
4 minutes ago
- Fox News
Charlamagne tha God shares whether he'd vote for another Kamala Harris ticket
'The Breakfast Club' host Charlamagne tha God breaks down what he thinks of the first months of President Donald Trump's second term on 'My View with Lara Trump.'
