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NEW YORK / AP
Facing questions about meager fundraising, slipping poll numbers and campaign instability, Donald Trump is tending to business — in Scotland.
In his first international trip since becoming the presumptive Republican nominee, Trump plans to check on a pair of his championship golf resorts. Some Republicans worry that the billionaire’s attention is divided between his businesses and his campaign
“I’m not sure what the purpose of the trip is,” said Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., who added that he hopes Trump “would get back here quickly.”
Trump’s son, Eric, who oversaw the two-year, more than $300 million renovation at the Trump Turnberry golf course, dismissed those concerns, saying “the eyes of the world” will be on his father during a two-day stay in Scotland that begins on Friday.
“The Turnberry course is one of the crown jewels of the golf world and is now one of the crown jewels of our family’s properties,” Eric Trump said this week in an interview with The Associated Press. “He’s over there to inspect the course and to support his son who put a tremendous amount of time and energy into the project.” Trump’s first stop on Friday morning will be in Turnberry, which is nestled along Scotland’s western rocky coast and has been in use for more than a century. The site, which Trump bought in 2014, has hosted four British Open championships, was used as an airplane landing strip during both world wars and features a lighthouse that stands on the ruins of a 13th century castle.
He will visit another course he owns, in Aberdeen, on Saturday before returning to the United States after just 36 hours.
“It’s a brief but important visit and then he will be back on the campaign trail,” Eric Trump said.
The trip comes at a precarious time for the United Kingdom. Trump is expected to arrive a day after Britons vote on whether to remain in the European Union.
Trump does not have any meetings scheduled with Scottish political leaders, his campaign said. That stands in contrast to previous presidential nominees’ foreign trips. In 2012, for instance, Mitt Romney met with British Prime Minister David Cameron. Then-Sen. Barack Obama met with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2008.