Trump’s five-star scandal
US Air Force flight crew, the SNP’s ghost airport... and how a row over bills for rooms at his luxury golf resort has left him facing an explosive probe by military top brass
‘Haemorrhaging cash since the SNP bought it’
‘This has nothing to do with me’
IN November 2014, when Donald Trump was still mulling over whether to launch a bid for the Presidency, he flew to Scotland for one of his very important announcements. The US businessman’s arrival at Glasgow Prestwick Airport was greeted with the customary hoopla and razzmatazz.
Not for him the low-key approach adopted by the US Air Force at the same location more than half a century earlier when it tried – and failed – to keep a lid on the brief visit of another famously coiffured American, Elvis Presley, as he was flown home following national service.
Mr Trump wanted the world to know about the ‘official partnership’ that his Trump Organisation had just struck with Prestwick’s bosses to create a vibrant business from the ailing taxpayer-owned facility.
He had just bought nearby Trump Turnberry and its Open-standard courses for £35million and planned a £250million makeover for the luxury resort. A thriving Prestwick was integral to the future success of Trump’s purchase.
For the airport, too, which has been haemorrhaging cash since the Scottish Government bought it for £1 in 2013, Trump’s sudden interest in a minor regional hub seemed a vital shot in the arm.
Prestwick was nominally hosting the press conference, but no one was in any doubt who was calling the shots here – the name was emblazoned in letters 10ft tall on the private Boeing 757 parked up behind the tycoon as he spoke.
The message was vintage Trump. With his help, Prestwick’s fortunes would be transformed. There would be ‘hundreds’ of extra flights, bringing wealthy golfers from around the world eager to play some of the world’s best courses. Naturally, that would include Trump Turnberry, 23 miles away, which has yet to turn a profit.
‘We are going to have planes coming in from New York and all over; very high-level planes like Gulffrom streams and Bombardiers,’ gushed the businessman. ‘We are going to make this really successful. You are going to get a lot of business.’
Prestwick Airport’s then-chief executive Iain Cochrane agreed that a partnership with the Trump Organisation ‘would undoubtedly be mutually beneficial’.
Asked for specifics, Trump said: ‘I can’t define it, but a lot of flights will be coming in and you’ll have to ask the people who run the airport what that means. A lot of people will be coming to the area and they will be buying a lot of fuel and spending a lot of money.’
Fast-forward five short years and those words may yet come back to haunt now-President Trump after it emerged that a congressional committee is investigating whether his Scottish business links breach the US Constitution by allowing him to line his pockets at American taxpayers’ expense.
Hundreds of extra flights have indeed landed at Prestwick in the years since that announcement, but many were not ferrying wellheeled golfers to sample Turnberry’s five-star opulence. Instead, by far the largest growth sector – acknowledged this week by Transport Secretary Michael Matheson – has been military landings.
In particular, there has been a dramatic increase in stopovers by US Air Force crews, up from 95 in 2015 to 259 so far this year. This year’s stopovers included 220 overnight stays by military personnel – some at Trump Turnberry.
One crew member who stayed over in March was so struck by the choice of hotel – markedly different the Marriotts and Hiltons he was used to – that he texted a photo to a friend noting that the crew’s daily allowance wasn’t enough to cover food and drinks at the ritzy resort. Another, in September 2018, saw a unit of the Maine Air National Guard stopping en route to Qatar and spending a night at Turnberry.
Both diversions seemed to serve no operational purpose and came amid claims Trump is profiting from the Presidency. Panicking US Air Force chiefs have launched their own separate investigation and admit they cannot yet say how many overnight stays were spent at the luxury Ayrshire retreat.
But they have not denied American news organisations’ claims that Turnberry has been used on at least four separate stays in the past year alone, one of which involved more than 60 service members bedding down there.
Since October 2017, the USAF’s own records show 917 separate payments have been made to Prestwick for expenses totalling £14million. That includes £11million on fuel, which experts claim would be cheaper if purchased at a military base, such as RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk.
Although the USAF stresses none of its rules has been broken, these revelations have raised serious concerns that the military is helping to keep Trump Turnberry afloat – it lost £3.4million in 2017, but revenue went up £2.4million last year.
The House oversight committee has written to Acting Defence Secretary Patrick Shanahan demanding all documents detailing US military spending at Trump Turnberry and Prestwick, noting that expenditures at the airport ‘appear to have increased substantially’ since Trump entered office.
As committee chairman Elijah E Cummings put it: ‘Given the President’s continued financial stake in his Scotland golf courses, these reports raise questions about the President’s potential receipt of US or foreign government emoluments in violation of the US Constitution and raise other serious conflict of issue concerns.’
Sources say the Pentagon has yet to produce ‘a single document’.
Mr Trump, who also raised eyebrows when he chose to stay at his Turnberry property during a state visit to the UK in July last year, sought to dampen the growing controversy in trademark fashion.
‘I know nothing about an Air Force plane landing at an airport (which I do not own and have nothing to do with) near Turnberry Resort (which I do own) in Scotland, and filling up with fuel, with the crew staying overnight at Turnberry (they have good taste!),’ he posted on Twitter. ‘NOTHING TO DO WITH ME.’
It may take more than an angry tweet to counter Scottish Government records obtained under Freedom of Information legislation which show the Trump Organisation worked closely together with the airport and other agencies to try to increase private and commercial air traffic to the region.
As part of that arrangement, the Trump Organisation endeavoured to have Trump Turnberry added to a list of hotels to which the airport would routinely send aircrews, even though it is more than 20 miles from the airport – further away than many hotels – and has higher advertised prices. Trump executives held a series of meetings with airport officials to negotiate terms that would lead to more referrals, according to the documents, which remain posted on the Scottish Government website.
‘As a list of hotels that we use for our business, being honest, Turnberry was always last on the list, based on price,’ Jules Matteoni, a manager at Glasgow Prestwick, wrote in June 2015 to executives at Trump Turnberry. ‘Yesterday’s proposal places Turnberry in a favourable position and gives us food for thought in our placement of crews moving forward.’
That month, Trump announced his intention to run for the presidency. In November 2016, he won the keys to the White House.
And yet, his other ‘White House’ was never far from his thoughts. To understand Trump is to recognise the symbolism bound up with Trump Turnberry, which stands at the confluence of his greatest obsessions – business, golf and a deep love of his mother’s country.
That affection for Scotland is sincere, insists George Sorial, former Trump Organisation executive vice-president. ‘It comes from somewhere deep,’ he said in an interview. ‘It’s the birthplace of his mother. The connection is close, and even to this day, whenever I see him, inevitably one of the first questions he will ask is: “How are things going in Scotland?”’
Sorial recounts the celebrated story of how, after buying Turnberry, Mr Trump was personally hauling out paintings at 11pm and supervising where they should hang, deep into the small hours. He planned to spend only £100million on renovations but ended up splurging £250million on crystal chandeliers, a four-tier fountain, gold taps and miles of marble.
The lobby features 12 enormous gothic thrones ‘from Mr Trump’s private collection’, while 192 chandeliers adorn the public areas. Above the main staircase, the largest, shiniest of all – created from more than 1,000 pieces of cut glass – is called the Ivanka.
When Trump made his controversial UK state visit last July, it was the first chance he had had since assuming the highest office to visit his beloved resort. Ignoring protocol, he grabbed the opportunity without a second thought.
During one photo-call, the Presi
dent stood in the heart of Trump Turnberry beside an oil painting of himself hitting a ball down the fairway of his own golf course, while a Trump-branded Sikorsky helicopter sat on the lawn outside. His personal commitment to this most Trumpian of projects could not have been clearer.
Following his election victory, Trump chose not to fully divest himself from his business interests, choosing instead to put his holdings in a trust from which he can receive money at any time.
That controversial decision has propelled his Scottish interests up a growing list of conflict of interest concerns that Democrats plan to highlight in the coming months as House leaders decide whether to begin formal impeachment proceedings against the president.
The stopover that raised the alarm was an Air Force C-17 plane on its way from Alaska to Kuwait which stopped over at Prestwick overnight in March to refuel and give the crew a break.
The seven-person crew, which consisted of active duty and National Guard members from Alaska, were put up at Trump Turnberry which charged $136 (£110.28) per room. That was cheaper than a Marriott property’s rate of $161 (£130.55) and below the USAF’s allowable daily rate of $166(£134.60) per night.
A senior Air Force official told US news website Politico that choosing to refuel at Prestwick and stay at an upmarket property half-an-hour away would be unusual for such a mission.
Typically, the official added drily, air crews stay on a military base while in transit or at nearby lodgings ‘unless all the hotels are booked or there is a Scottish sheep festival going on’.
The official also pointed out that the personnel commonly responsible for identifying lodgings are notoriously frugal. ‘Master sergeants are cheap,’ he said.
The matter has caused deep embarrassment to the USAF, which immediately launched a worldwide review of how it chooses lodgings on overnight layovers.
Lieutenant General Jon T Thomas, deputy commander of Air Mobility Command, which oversees USAF transport around the world, pointed out that it has been using Prestwick since at least the late 1990s and the increase in stopovers was based on operational demands which the airport’s convenient location, round-the-clock operation and ample aircraft parking helped meet.
However, Lt Gen Thomas conceded that the decision to place crew members at a hotel owned by Trump’s family had created questions that the Defence Department needed to address.
‘It is a reasonable ask for us to make sure we are being sensitive to misperceptions that could be formed by the American people or Congress or anyone else [about where we billet aircrews],’ he said.
But while the President remains bullish in defence of his own business interests, the continuing furore is particularly acute for Prestwick, which has struggled to attract commercial business and is currently looking for a buyer.
In a further twist, Mr Matheson refused to rule out selling the troubled facility – which has received £40million in taxpayers’ cash in six years – to the US military. Three offers are understood to have been received before the deadline this month and are being assessed. It is expected any sale will be completed next month.
Asked whether he would rule out selling all or part of the airport to the US military, Mr Matheson replied: ‘I don’t want to be evasive but I’m trying to protect the process the management team are undertaking, so I am not going to enter into any speculation about any potential purchase or purchaser of the airport.’
It is a critical time for Prestwick as it seeks to renew a contract with the US Defence Logistics Agency to service USAF planes. The new contract, which is due to start next month and run until 2024, would involve supplying some 12.4million gallons of fuel – around three million more than the current deal.
Prestwick confirmed that, under its current arrangement with the USAF, it not only refuels American military planes but also helps arrange hotel accommodation for arriving crews, as it does for some civilian and commercial aircraft.
Refusing to answer specific questions about its dealings with Trump Turnberry, the airport said in a statement: ‘We provide a full handling service for customers and routinely arrange overnight accommodation for visiting aircrew when requested. We use over a dozen local hotels, including Trump Turnberry which accounts for a small percentage of the total hotel bookings we make.’
A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘Glasgow Prestwick is operated on a commercial basis and at arm’s length... in compliance with EU state aid rules. Ministers do not intervene in the commercial discussions at the airport.’
Elvis’s unexpected arrival one cold March night in 1960 has already given Prestwick its place in the history books.
But even a rare sighting of the King would be trumped by a scandal that brings down the President.
‘Typically, air crews stay on a military base’