Trump had deal with Scotland airport that sent crews to resort
WASHINGTON >> Back in 2014, soon after acquiring a golf resort in Scotland, Donald Trump entered a partnership with a struggling local airport there to increase air traffic and boost tourism in the region.
The next year, as Trump began running for president, the Pentagon decided to ramp up its use of that same airport to refuel Air Force flights and gave the local airport authority the job of helping to find accommodations for flight crews who had to remain overnight.
Those two separate arrangements have now intersected in ways that provide the latest evidence of how Trump’s continued ownership of his business produces regular ethical questions.
On Monday, Trump sought to tamp down a growing controversy over a stay at the resort by U.S. military personnel who were traveling through the airport in Scotland in March. First on Twitter and later speaking to reporters at the White House, he said he was not involved in any decision to put an Air Force flight crew at the resort, known as Trump Turnberry.
“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!),” Trump wrote on Twitter. “NOTHING TO DO WITH ME.”
But documents obtained from Scottish government agencies show that the Trump Organization, and Trump himself, had a direct role in setting up an arrangement between the Turnberry resort and officials at Glasgow Prestwick Airport.
The government records, released through the Scottish Freedom of Information law, show that the Trump Organization, starting in 2014, entered a partnership with the airport to try to increase private and commercial air traffic to the region.
As part of that arrangement, the Trump Organization worked to get Trump Turnberry added to a list of hotels that the airport would routinely send aircrews to, even though the Turnberry resort is 20 miles from the airport, farther away than many other hotels, and has higher advertised prices.
Trump Organization executives held a series of meetings with the airport officials to negotiate terms that would lead to more referrals, the documents show.
“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 favorable position and gives us food for thought in our placement of crews moving forward.”