President Donald Trump is on a days-long, taxpayer-funded trip to Scotland, where he’s visiting 2 of his financially struggling golf properties—and cheating as he hits the links. And the Scots are not pleased, greeting him with protests and efforts to obstruct his media appearances.
While Trump spoke with reporters Monday during a visit with UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, a protester played the bagpipes to drown him out.
If Trump thought his trip abroad would quell the uproar over his refusal to release the Epstein files, he thought wrong.
Many of the signs protesters carried mocked Trump for his relationship with accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. And reporters continued to press him on the issue, to which Trump only got himself into more hot water by saying that he never had the “privilege” of visiting Epstein’s private island where he carried out his alleged abuse of minor girls.
Other protesters carried hilarious signs depicting Trump as Satan, a Cheeto, and a baby wearing a diaper. One protester held a sign that said, “No paedos, no felons, no fascists means no Trump.”
“I want him to leave our country. He’s an odious man. Horrible orange buffoon,” the protester said.
Even the press made sure that Trump knew he was unwelcome, with the Scottish outlet The National running the headline, “Convicted US Felon to Arrive in Scotland,” along with the teaser, “Republican leader, who was found liable for sexual abuse and defamation, will visit golf courses.”
Ouch.
Trump is overwhelmingly unpopular in Scotland, where 71% of residents hold an unfavorable opinion of him, according to an Ipsos poll from March. That’s far higher than the United Kingdom as a whole, which has a 57% unfavorable opinion of him.
This trip has particularly enraged Scots, as taxpayers are footing the bill for the massive security costs required for Trump’s visits to his golf courses.
“People are upset that this is being described as a private visit yet there’s a huge cost to the country for security. Things are tight enough—why are we paying for this? He’s pulling British police into a deliberate stunt for publicity for his new course,” protester David Milne told The Guardian.
And that was a common sentiment shared among protesters.
“Why isn’t he paying for it himself? He’s coming for golf, isn’t he?” Merle Fertuson, a protester in Edinburgh, told The Associated Press. “It’s got nothing whatsoever to do with public money, either US or UK.”
It’s not just Scottish taxpayers who are on the hook for Trump’s golf trip. U.S. taxpayers are footing a bill of at least $10 million for his travel costs.
If Trump’s so concerned with ending waste and abuse in the federal government, it seems like he should be paying for a personal trip to advertise his crappy golf properties himself.