Trump plays his last card

Donald Trump last week threatened to scrap £700million of investment at Turnberry golf course in Ayrshire and Trump Inter-national Golf Links near Aberdeen if he was banned from Britain after his comment that all Muslims should be banned from America. Trump said any ban would “immediately end these and all future investments we are contemplating in the UK”. Trump told Aberdeenshire planning officials that he would spend £643million and create more than 6000 jobs. Experts estimate he has spent less than £30million. Plans for a second golf course, hundreds of private homes and holiday lodges have yet to materialise.

The threat to scrap £700million of investment in Scotland is another of the tycoon’s fairytales, according to a leading economist. Professor Paul Cheshire accused the tycoon of hugely exaggerating the size and benefits of his stake in Scotland and said promises made by him were falling apart at the seams. The emeritus professor of economic geography at the London School of Economics spoke out after it was revealed Trump’s Aberdeenshire golf course created less than a 10th of the jobs originally forecast by Trump.

He said: “These figures are all fairytales. The idea that you could build an international golf resort well north of Aberdeen and attract the type of high-rollers that would be necessary to make that sustainable didn’t ever strike me as being remotely plausible. Trump is essentially a conjurer with wonderful patter. What he was originally proposing was an enormous twin golf course with a big international standard hotel and a hostel for migrant workers, plus hundreds of private houses. He was pulling the wool over the eyes of these poor people in Aberdeen, who just fell for it hook, line and sinker because they were worried about the end of North Sea oil. He promised them the ‘golf economy’. He claimed it would generate around 7000 jobs – I thought it was more likely to generate a few hundred.”

Prof Cheshire, one of the UK’s most respected economists, warned politicians that Trump could not deliver when detailed plans were submitted in 2011. Prof Cheshire added: “I thought it was such an obvious con that was being played on such a large scale, at the expense of an incredibly important site and local people’s interests. I thought Alex Salmond was a canny fellow but Trump pulled the wool over his eyes.”

Trump first announced he was planning to extend his business in Europe by building the resort at the Menie estate in March 2006. After the plans were originally rejected, then First Minister Alex Salmond met Trump representatives at an Aberdeen hotel and, shortly afterwards, the Scottish Government gave fresh hope to the proposal. They said it was “in the national interest” of Scotland for it to receive consideration through a government-backed inquiry. The public inquiry took place in 2008 and the development was given the green light. But it still had stiff opposition from environmental campaigners and local residents, some of whom Trump tried to force from their homes.

Councillor Martin Ford was chairman of Aberdeenshire Council’s infrastructure services committee when Trump’s planning application was received in 2006. After using his casting vote to go against the plans, he was later sacked from the position. Cllr Ford said: “Mr Trump promised everything under the sun and they were all ludicrous, ridiculous exaggerations which nobody should have believed. He said it was a £1billion investment but it was about £13million in 2011 – including buying the estate. By the end of 2013, it had gone up to about £25million and, since then, he’s built a clubhouse and a few sheds. It’s pretty safe to say he’s spent under £30million. From the point where the plan was first announced, the amount of money and the number of jobs just kept getting bigger. Fewer than 100 jobs is a tiny fraction of what was pledged and promised. It is important to note that Trump has not built a golf resort – he’s built a golf course and clubhouse. He was going to build a 450-bed five-star hotel. He has instead converted Menie House into a small hotel. So you can see the pattern here – £1billion goes down to £30million, 6000 jobs go down to 95 and a 450-bed hotel which has something like six rooms.”

Anthony Baxter who made the documentary ‘You’ve Been Trumped’ said: “The suggestions that the capital expenditure on Trump International was £643million and the course would support more than 6000 jobs are just total pie in the sky. He has already said he is not going to invest any more if the wind farm goes ahead. He is constantly coming up with bullying threats. Politicians need to wake up to reality.”

Trump still has outstanding planning applications with Aberdeenshire Council for further work at the site. These include the development of the MacLeod Course. He has also applied to extend MacLeod House, the resort’s hotel, and has submitted a planning permission in principle application to build 850 homes and 1900 holiday homes. In 2014, he took control of world-renowned golf course Turnberry.