Welcome to Scotland, Donald! Here’s what the locals think of you.

Donald Trump wants to enjoy a long weekend of golfing. Good luck with that.

The U.S. president lands in Scotland, his mother’s birthplace, on Friday for the first time since his return to the White House. On the itinerary is time at his Turnberry and Aberdeen golf resorts, plus meetings with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Scottish First Minister John Swinney. 

But with colorful protests expected, Trump’s trip has prompted a security operation as big as Queen Elizabeth’s funeral in 2022. Up to 6,000 officers will shield the most powerful man in the world from what are expected to be significant demonstrations. The Scottish Police Federation has already queried whether adequate resources are in place to manage such a huge operation.

So what do those closest to the action think about the circus coming to town?

POLITICO grilled seven plugged-in Scottish politicians of all stripes on the flying visit — and asked where Trump should go if he does manage to venture away from the golf course.

Elaine Stewart, Labour MP for Ayr, Carrick & Cumnock

Elaine Stewart has only been the Labour MP whose patch covers Trump Turnberry for just over a year — but she isn’t daunted by the president’s arrival. 

“He’s been here before,” Stewart says. “That same spectacle happened when he was president the first time.”

Despite concerns around policing, Stewart — who recalls the last presidential Trump trip to Scotland — says she’s confident this visit will go off without a security hitch. “There was security on the beaches and the roads and there were loads of police everywhere,” she says. “Loads of people … watched because it’s something that they thought they would never see again,” Stewart mused. “But here we are.” 

Stewart has been meeting farmers in her local constituency — who say they benefit directly from Trump’s presence. “[The resort] sources all his meat and his seafood and vegetables locally,” she says. The U.S. president loves a grand gesture and a prime bit of real estate — so Stewart recommends a trip to the clifftop Culzean Castle just a few miles from Turnberry.  Dating back centuries, the stately home has a suite gifted to former U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower for his military leadership during the Second World War as supreme commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe.

Alec Clark, independent deputy leader of South Ayrshire Council 

Trump’s presence will generate global attention — but Alec Clark will have to deal with the local reaction long after the president has jetted back to America. The independent deputy leader of South Ayrshire Council, whose ward includes Trump Turnberry, is in a sunny mood about the trip, praising the funds that Trump’s company has plowed into the tiny rural village.

“The actual investment that goes into Turnberry year after year, week after week, day after day, is tremendous,” Clark says, lauding the more than 400 people employed “in a rural area where every job is like gold dust.” 

The estate unsurprisingly became a huge attraction after Trump entered politics, and Clark has noticed that “tourists are stopping there to take photographs of the hotel.” He ascribes Trump’s “sympathetic stance” toward Scotland to his mother’s Scottish roots.

As police prepare for protests, Clark defends such dissent as “one of the things you’ve got to handle” in a democracy. “It’s only courteous to listen, because people can protest … but the only way to make a difference is to discuss,” he reflects.

If Trump does have some time away from the golf buggy, Clark reckons he should pop along to the Robert Burns museum in Alloway, a suburb north of Turnberry, to learn more about the poet and view some original manuscripts. “Burns is history,” Clark says. “Burns is the National Bard of Scotland. He’s known all over the world.”

Brian Whittle, Tory Scottish Parliament member (MSP) for South Scotland 

Brian Whittle is no stranger to presidential big beasts rolling into town. Prior to entering the Scottish Parliament to represent South Scotland — which includes Turnberry — the Conservative MSP ran an event management company that organized a visit to Glasgow by Bill Clinton.

When U.S. presidents come to Scotland, they don’t travel lightly. 

Clinton’s trip in the mid-2000s after leaving the White House involved three months of preparation, Whittle said, including many meetings with the U.S. Secret Service and British spooks in MI5 and MI6.

“If that’s the level of security required for a former president of the United States, a current president, especially one with Donald Trump’s current reputation … would be even greater, much greater than what I had to deal with,” he says.

Given that Trump’s visit — billed as a private trip — is a tad spontaneous, Whittle isn’t surprised there’s been a “bit of scrambling around to make sure all the protocols are in place.” 

“No matter where he goes, there’ll be protests,” the Tory MSP says. “That’s part of the deal, that’s part of the job.” 

But he urges Scots not to get too excited. “On one level, this story is about: Somebody owns a bit of property and is coming to see a property.”

Whittle says Turnberry is a “massive asset” that encourages global visitors. “If you go down there, it’s always busy as a venue,” he adds.

Wendy Chamberlain, Lib Dem MP for North East Fife 

As a former cop, the Liberal Democrat MP for North East Fife, Wendy Chamberlain, is thinking about the “day-to-day” impact on policing of the Trump team rolling into town. “These are huge logistical challenges for police forces,” she says.

“One of the challenges of it being private is there seems to be a lack of knowledge about what’s actually happening.”

Chamberlain is the chief enforcer of House of Commons discipline for the centrist Liberal Democrats, who have built a brand around calling out Trump. “There always has been quite an active protest movement, sometimes with a good deal of humor as well, which is very Scottish,” Chamberlain says.

But she understands why Starmer and Swinney — both from center-left parties — would meet with the right-wing Republican firebrand. “You have to look past the individual that’s in the role of the president of the United States — and look at the role itself,” she says.

Mercedes Villalba, Labour MSP for North East Scotland 

Starmer’s Westminster administration has been at pains to cosy up to Trump. Not everyone in his party is happy.

Mercedes Villalba, a Labour MSP for North East Scotland, which covers Trump’s Aberdeen estate, is a fierce critic of the U.S. president’s foreign policy — especially in the Middle East. 

Her constituents will show support for “the Palestinian people and their right to self-determination,” she says, with the Palestinian flag flying above Dundee’s City Chambers, a place twinned with Nablus in the Occupied West Bank since 1980.  

“Our region’s rich history of solidarity at home and abroad is alien to Donald Trump,” Villalba said. To her, Trump is a “convicted felon who has pledged to turn Gaza into the ‘Riviera of the Middle East’ and continues to send weapons to a state credibly accused of genocide.” 

Villalba has no doubt her constituents “will make their opposition to the U.S. president’s visit abundantly clear,” and hopes Swinney demonstrates “the same commitment to peace and justice” during his own expected meeting with the U.S. president.

Tess White, Conservative MSP for North East Scotland 

Northeastern Scotland sits on vast quantities of gas and oil — but the British government is wary about the climate impacts of getting stuck in.

Having worked in the energy sector for three decades, Tess White, a Tory MSP for the region, hopes the president’s trip will spark “widespread recognition” of the dangers of switching to renewables too quickly. 

Trump has long complained about Scotland’s wind turbines. White said she hopes that “President Trump will do in two days what the SNP have just failed to do in over a decade,” aiming a shot at Scotland’s ruling Scottish National Party. She reckons Trump should visit the government-run renewables investment body GB Energy in Aberdeen — to see for himself that it’s “really not a serious vehicle for strengthening and improving our oil and gas industry.”

White also blames “very, very” stretched policing around the visit on the SNP. “Police officers are under immense strain with millions of hours in overtime being notched up,” she warns.

When in town, White recommends Trump try some Angus beef (“the best in the world”) and additive-free locally grown fruit.

Torcuil Crichton, Labour MP for Na h-Eileanan an Iar 

Torcuil Crichton has served as Labour MP for Na h-Eileanan an Iar since last July. The Western Isles include Lewis, where Trump’s mother Mary Anne MacLeod was born in 1912. 

“People in Lewis are very proud of Mary Anne MacLeod and that entire emigration generation of islanders who left in their thousands during the hungry 1920s and made America great,” Crichton said.

“Mr Trump is a son of Lewis,” he added. “While oceans separate our politics, any island exile is embraced on their return.

“Every prodigal son is welcomed home.”