Losses at Trump’s Scottish resorts doubled last year
NEW YORK—Donald Trump boasts of making great deals, but a financial report filed with the British government shows he has lost millions of dollars for three years running on a couple of his more recent big investments: his Scottish golf resorts.
A report from Britain’s Companies House released late Friday shows losses last year at the two resorts more than doubled to 17.6 million pounds ($23 million). Revenue also fell sharply.
In the report, Trump’s company attributed the results partly to having shut down its Turnberry resort for half the year while building a new course there and fixing up an old one.
His company has faced several setbacks since it ventured into Scotland a dozen years ago, and its troubles recently have mounted.
The company has angered some local residents near its second resort on the North Sea with what they say are its bullying tactics to make way for more development. The company also has lost a court fight to stop an offshore windmill farm near that resort, drew objections from environmental regulators over building plans there in August and appears at risk of losing a bid to host the coveted Scottish Open at its courses.
Trump handed over management of his company to his two adult sons before becoming U.S. president but still retains his financial interest in it.
It’s not clear how big a role Trump’s setbacks in Scotland have played in the losses. In addition to the Turnberry shutdown, the company also noted in its report that it took an 8 million pound ($10 million) loss due to fluctuations in the value of the British pound last year.
The company reported that revenue at the two courses fell 21 percent to 9 million pounds ($11.7 million) in 2016 from 11.4 million pounds ($15 million) a year earlier.
Trump’s golf business is closely watched because he has made big investments buying and developing courses in recent years, a risky wager in a struggling industry.
Much of the anger toward Trump in Scotland is centered around his resort outside Aberdeen overlooking the North Sea coast and its famed sand dunes stretching into the distance. Called the Trump International Golf Links, it is here that a local fisherman became a national hero of sorts for refusing a $690,000 offer from Trump for his land and where footage was shot for a documentary on Trump’s fights with the residents, called “Tripping Up Trump.”
Many locals praise the course for bringing in more tourists to the area and helping the local economy, but Trump’s critics there are outspoken and now, with their target the U.S. president, playing to a worldwide audience.
The same day that the financial report on the resorts was released, an online petition by a global corporate watchdog group fighting Trump’s plans for a second 18-hole course to the North Sea resort got signature number 94,860.
When Trump visited his North Sea resort in June last year, two local residents ran Mexican flags up a pole in protest against the then-candidate’s immigration policies. It was a snub that came just after the U.K. Supreme Court ruled unanimously against Trump’s efforts to stop the wind farm, a Scottish government decision to strip him of his title as business ambassador for Scotland and the revocation of an honorary degree from Aberdeen’s Robert Gordon University.
Both the Scottish government and the university cited Trump’s comments about Muslims during the campaign.
In July, the CEO of a major sponsor of the Scottish Open was quoted in a local newspaper casting doubt on Trump’s chances of hosting the event.
“There’s no decision made but, look, there are clear issues,” Aberdeen Asset Management CEO Martin Gilbert was quoted saying. He added, “Politics aside, Trump would be an ideal venue— but you can’t put politics aside.”