Trump warning over golf resort

US property tycoon Donald Trump said yesterday that Scotland would be sending out a disastrous message about investing there if his plans to build a golf resort are crushed.

Trump wants to build a giant, luxury complex on the Scottish east coast near Aberdeen, but has run into opposition from environmentalists and a local farmer who refuses to budge.

The Scottish government has called for a full public inquiry into the plans and Trump is due to give evidence in Aberdeen today.

“If with all the popularity it has — not just from the people but from politicians — it does not get accepted, it would be a very bad signal to the world in terms of investing in Scotland,” he said.

The 61-year-old New Yorker was speaking after a brief visit to his late mother’s former home in Stornoway on the remote Isle of Lewis.

He said he would probably have given up on his plans to site the resort in Scotland after they were initially rejected by Aberdeenshire Council, had his mother not been a Scot.

“It is really easy to find a nice piece of land to do something nice on,” he said. “But Scotland is special and I wanted to do something special for my mother.”

He denied the visit to his mother’s former home was to publicise his plans.

Trump’s advisers have looked at Northern Ireland as a possible alternative.

The public local inquiry in Aberdeen is expected to last three weeks.