ABERDEEN, Scotland (Reuters) -Former U.S. President Donald Trump arrived in Scotland on Monday for a short trip to visit his golf courses in the country and in Ireland.
Trump, who has family roots in Lewis, an island off the northwestern tip of Scotland, owns two golf courses in Scotland – one north of Aberdeen and the Turnberry resort south of Glasgow – as well as the Doonbeg golf resort in Ireland.
“It’s great to be home,” Trump told reporters after disembarking from his plane at Aberdeen airport. “This was the home of my mother.”
Trump, who launched his election campaign last November for the 2024 U.S. presidential election, said on Sunday he was travelling to “see and inspect” his properties in Scotland and Ireland.
“Will be meeting with many wonderful friends, and cutting a ribbon for a new and SPECTACULAR Second Course in Aberdeen. Very Exciting,” the 76-year old said on his social media platform Truth Social.
The trip comes weeks after Trump was charged with 34 felony counts in New York in a case involving an alleged $130,000 hush payment to an adult film star during his 2016 presidential campaign. Trump pleaded not guilty to all of the charges.
Accounts released in February showed that the two Scottish golf courses lost 4.4 million pounds ($5.5 million) in 2021.
($1 = 0.7989 pounds)
(Reporting by Russell Cheyne; writing by Muvija M and William Schomberg; Editing by Kate Holton and Christina Fincher)
