LONDON – President Trump did not say where he plans to go after leaving the White House on January 20. But the Scottish leader made it clear on Tuesday that Trump is not welcome in his country.
Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s prime minister, said that under the recently imposed virus restrictions, which prohibit all travel except essential travel, a visit by the president to one of his Scottish golf resorts, Trump Turnberry, would not be acceptable.
Rumors that Tump was going to Scotland spread after a Scottish newspaper reported that an American military version of a Boeing 757 – sometimes used by Trump – was scheduled to land at a nearby airport on January 19, the day before Joseph R Biden Jr. must take office as president.
“We are not allowing people to enter Scotland,” Sturgeon told reporters in Edinburgh, “and that would apply to him as well as anyone else – and going in to play golf is not what I would consider an essential purpose. “
A frank policy, Sturgeon said he did not know what Trump’s travel plans were, but that he hoped his immediate plan would be to leave the White House. On Monday, it imposed a blockade on Scotland, which, like England, is fighting an increase in coronavirus cases because of a new variant that spreads quickly.
Under the new rules, people are obliged to stay at home and work from there, whenever possible. Worship sites have been closed and schools will operate by remote education. Scotland often acted faster and further than England to impose restrictions during the pandemic.
The White House initially declined to comment on the report, first published in the Scottish newspaper Sunday Post, but later denied it.
“This is not necessary,” said press secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Tuesday. “President Trump has no plans to travel to Scotland.”
Two White House officials said that while there has been almost no concrete discussion of what Trump will do on January 20 because he is so focused on trying to reverse the election results, they do not believe he is considering Scotland.
Mr. Trump has owned the Trump Turnberry resort since 2014 and has long thought of it as an escape. In November 2016, according to Anthony Scaramucci, the former director of communications for the White House, he planned to fly to the resort if, as he expected, he lost the presidential race to Hillary Clinton. In July 2018, Trump spent two days playing golf during a visit to Britain, before flying to Helsinki, Finland, to meet with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.
Turnberry is perhaps the most prestigious golf course in Trump’s portfolio. But Trump is highly unpopular in Britain, and even after a $ 150 million overhaul, the course has consistently lost money, and the president is determined to drive business for him.
Last summer, Turnberry was investigated after the American ambassador to Britain, Robert Wood Johnson IV, told colleagues that Trump asked him to see if the British government could lead the British Open golf tournament to its links.
Johnson, a close friend of Trump, raised the issue with Scotland’s then Secretary of State David Mundell, according to Lewis A. Lukens, a former deputy chief of the London embassy mission, who served as interim ambassador before the Mr. Johnson’s arrival.
Turnberry also drew attention when the Pentagon acknowledged it was sending troops to the resort while they spent the night at Glasgow’s Prestwick Airport, the same airport where Scottish media, citing an airport source, reported plans for the 757 government to arrive in January 19th.
Trump has yet to grant Biden the election and said little about what he plans to do after leaving the White House. He left his property in Palm Beach, Florida, in Mar-a-Lago, to return to the White House on New Year’s Eve, skipping the traditional party in the property’s ballroom.
Currently, Trump seems concerned about trying to reverse the election results. He made few comments about the pandemic, focusing almost entirely on baseless allegations of widespread electoral fraud.
In Scotland, however, Trump would find a country consumed in his battle with the virus. Sturgeon’s decision to impose a blockade on Monday precipitated a decision by Prime Minister Boris Johnson at the end of the day to place all of England in a similar blockade. Under the terms of limited self-government in the United Kingdom, Scottish authorities are responsible for public health.
Unlike Johnson, whom Trump cultivated as a similar-minded populist, Sturgeon, who is the leader of the Scottish National Party, never made his views on Trump a secret.
On the Friday after the election, when Biden looked ready for victory, she said on Twitter: “The world can be a dark place at times now – but today we are seeing a small gap in the clouds.”
Mark Landler reported from London and Maggie Haberman from New York.