BALMEDIE: President Donald Trump is opening a new golf course bearing his name in Scotland on Tuesday, capping a five-day foreign trip designed around promoting his family's luxury properties and playing golf.
Trump and his sons, Eric and Donald Jr., are cutting the ceremonial ribbon and playing the first-ever round at the new Trump course in the village of Balmedie, on the northern coast of Scotland.
The overseas jaunt let Trump escape Washington’s sweaty summer humidity and the still-raging scandal over the files related to Jeffrey Epstein.
It was mostly built around golf — and walking the new course before it officially begins offering rounds to the public on Aug. 13, adding to a lengthy list of ways Trump has used the White House to promote his brand.
Billing itself the “Greatest 36 Holes in Golf,” the Trump International Golf Links, Scotland, course is hosting a PGA Seniors Championship event this week, after Trump leaves. Signs promoting the event had already been erected all over the course before he arrived on Tuesday, and, on the highway leading in, temporary metal signs guided drivers onto the correct road.
Golfers hitting the course at dawn as part of that event had to put their clubs through metal detectors erected as part of the security sweeps ahead of Trump's arrival.
Also from Scotland's north is the president's late mother, Mary Anne MacLeod, who was born on the Isle of Lewis, immigrated to New York and died in 2000 at age 88.
“My mother loved Scotland,” Trump said during a meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday at another one of his golf courses, Turnberry, on Scotland's southern coast. “It's different when your mother was born here.”
Trump used his trip to meet with Starmer and reach a trade framework for tariffs between the U.S. and the European Union’s 27 member countries — though scores of key details remain to be hammered out. But the trip has featured a lot of golf, and having the president visit is sure to raise the new course's profile.
Trump’s assets are in a trust, and his sons are running the family business while he’s in the White House. Any business generated at the course will ultimately enrich the president when he leaves office, though.
Visible from various parts of the new course were towering windmills lining the coast — some with blades that showed visible dots of rust. They are part of a nearby windfarm that Trump sued to block construction of in 2013.
He lost that case and was eventually ordered to pay legal costs for bringing it — and the issue still enrages him. During the meeting with Starmer, Trump called windmills “ugly monsters” and suggested they were part of “the most expensive form of energy.”
“I restricted windmills in the United States because they also kill all your birds,” Trump said. “If you shoot a bald eagle in the United States, they put you in jail for five years. And windmills knock out hundreds of them. They don’t do anything. Explain that.”
Starmer said in the U.K, “we believe in a mix” of energy, including oil and gas and renewables.
The new golf course will be the third owned by the Trump Organization in Scotland. Trump bought Turnberry in 2014 and owns another course near Aberdeen that opened in 2012.
Trump golfed at Turnberry on Saturday as protesters took to the streets, and on Sunday. He invited Starmer, who famously doesn’t golf, aboard Air Force One so the prime minister could get a private tour of his Aberdeen properties before Tuesday’s ceremonial opening.
“Even if you play badly, it’s still good,” Trump said of golfing on his course over the weekend. “If you had a bad day on the golf course, it’s OK. It’s better than other days.”
Trump also found time to to praise Turnberry's renovated ballroom, which he said he'd paid lavishly to upgrade — even suggesting that he might install one like it at the White House.
“I could take this one, drop it right down there," Trump joked. “And it would be beautiful.”
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Trump caps his Scottish visit by opening a new golf course
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Trump caps his Scottish visit by opening a new golf course
- The new golf course will be the third owned by the Trump Organization in Scotland
Chaos erupts at Indian airports as country’s largest airline cancels flights
NEW DELHI: Chaos gripped major Indian airports Friday as passengers of the country’s biggest airline, IndiGo, scrambled to cope up with widespread flight disruptions and cancelations triggered by newly enforced rules limiting working hours for crew and pilots.
Scenes of frustration played out as passengers slept on airport floors, queued for hours at customer service counters and waited without clear communication from the airline.
Friday was the fourth straight day of disruptions as the low cost carrier struggles with new regulations that mandate longer rest periods and limit night flying hours to address concerns about fatigue and safety.
The first phase of the rules came into effect in July while the second phase kicked in November. IndiGo struggled to adapt its rosters in time, resulting in widespread cancelations and disruptions.
On Thursday, more than 300 IndiGo flights were grounded while several hundreds delayed. A passenger advisory from the Delhi airport Friday stated that all domestic IndiGo flights will remain canceled until midnight. Other major airlines, including Air India, have not faced similar issues so far.
IndiGo operates around 2,300 flights daily and controls nearly 65 percent of India’s domestic aviation market.
Senior citizen Sajal Bose was scheduled to travel with his wife Senjuti Bose early Friday from Kolkata to New Delhi to attend a friend’s silver jubilee celebration. His flight was canceled an hour before the scheduled take off.
Bose told The Associated Press he was now taking a nine-hour train ride to the city Bagdogra, where he plans to get a flight to New Delhi on another airline. “Its very irresponsible and complete negligence. Very difficult for older people like us,” he said.
In an internal email to employees this week, seen by The Associated Press, IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers apologized, and cited technology glitches, schedule changes, adverse weather conditions, heightened congestion and the implementation of the new rules as the reasons for flight disruptions.
The Civil Aviation Ministry said in a statement that the disruptions arose primarily through misjudgment and planning gaps as the airline implemented phase two of the new rules, and that the airline acknowledged that the effect on crew strength exceeded their expectations.
IndiGo has sought temporary exemptions in implementing the new rules and told the government that corrective measures were underway. It has indicated the operations will be fully restored by Feb. 10.
More cancelations are expected in the next couple of weeks, and the airline said it would reduce its flight operations from Dec. 8 to minimize disruptions.
Scenes of frustration played out as passengers slept on airport floors, queued for hours at customer service counters and waited without clear communication from the airline.
Friday was the fourth straight day of disruptions as the low cost carrier struggles with new regulations that mandate longer rest periods and limit night flying hours to address concerns about fatigue and safety.
The first phase of the rules came into effect in July while the second phase kicked in November. IndiGo struggled to adapt its rosters in time, resulting in widespread cancelations and disruptions.
On Thursday, more than 300 IndiGo flights were grounded while several hundreds delayed. A passenger advisory from the Delhi airport Friday stated that all domestic IndiGo flights will remain canceled until midnight. Other major airlines, including Air India, have not faced similar issues so far.
IndiGo operates around 2,300 flights daily and controls nearly 65 percent of India’s domestic aviation market.
Senior citizen Sajal Bose was scheduled to travel with his wife Senjuti Bose early Friday from Kolkata to New Delhi to attend a friend’s silver jubilee celebration. His flight was canceled an hour before the scheduled take off.
Bose told The Associated Press he was now taking a nine-hour train ride to the city Bagdogra, where he plans to get a flight to New Delhi on another airline. “Its very irresponsible and complete negligence. Very difficult for older people like us,” he said.
In an internal email to employees this week, seen by The Associated Press, IndiGo CEO Pieter Elbers apologized, and cited technology glitches, schedule changes, adverse weather conditions, heightened congestion and the implementation of the new rules as the reasons for flight disruptions.
The Civil Aviation Ministry said in a statement that the disruptions arose primarily through misjudgment and planning gaps as the airline implemented phase two of the new rules, and that the airline acknowledged that the effect on crew strength exceeded their expectations.
IndiGo has sought temporary exemptions in implementing the new rules and told the government that corrective measures were underway. It has indicated the operations will be fully restored by Feb. 10.
More cancelations are expected in the next couple of weeks, and the airline said it would reduce its flight operations from Dec. 8 to minimize disruptions.
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