A fortnight ago, Eric Trump was basking in the glow of the spotlight as his father Donald won a history-making second presidential election.
Today, he was sheltering from a snowstorm inside the clubhouse at Menie Estate – painting a picture of how the family’s “Mona Lisa of golf courses” is coming together.
Eric, the executive vice president of the Trump Organisation and head of Trump Golf, has been in the north-east, scouting the grounds of the second course at Balmedie.
He has had to fight the dreadful “snow squalls” to inspect every inch of the project for the last three days, traversing from one snow-capped dune to another.
However, he didn’t mind it – because he “was having fun”.
Sitting in the Trump International clubhouse, already festooned with festive decorations, he says the family has “put their heart and soul” into this venture.
The second course will open next summer, doubling the offering at the Aberdeenshire attraction.
Named in honour of Donald Trump’s mother Mary, the MacLeod Course will sit adjacent to the first course which opened for play -amid a storm of controversy – in 2012.
Eric is quick to hail his Scottish roots when he explains what progress they have made so far.
I braved the snow to drive to Balmedie, where we discussed:
- The VIP visitor lined up to play the first round at the new course
- His response to John Swinney endorsing Kamala Harris as the first minister urged Americans to keep Donald out of the White House
- And what is happening with the Trump Estate housing plans – four years on from being rubber-stamped
‘This is our Mona Lisa’
Eric adopts a surprisingly casual demeanour as he walks into the room, following hours of television interviews.
“Do you just want to have a chat here?” he asks, pointing towards an empty table in the clubhouse restaurant.
Amid the gentle clanking of cutlery and background chatter of diners, he pulls up a chair and launches into an enthusiastic pitch of his “most exciting project yet”.
More than a decade on, the Balmedie golf course is still a touchy subject among locals and environmentalists – once even dubbed “the most controversial project in the area”.
But Eric shrugs off “the abuse his family often gets”.
Throughout our 30-minute conversation he often emphasises the hundreds of jobs the golf course has created, and the millions of pounds they have invested in the north-east.
“This property has become our Mona Lisa,” the 40-year-old beams.
“Our entire premise is to create the best golf course that exists, and there isn’t an inch of that second course that I haven’t laboured over.
“There isn’t an inch that we haven’t thought through from every single angle, every bunker, every blade of grass. We have dumped our heart and soul into this property.”
Eric Trump’s tour of Balmedie golf course goes ahead despite the snow
His energy is surprising for someone who appears to have spent the past few days traipsing along the north-east coast in freezing temperatures.
Eric elaborates: “We walked all day across the course when I arrived through thick snow, going through every single detail of every hole – refining, refining, refining.
“But we are just having a lot of fun.
“A week and a half ago, I was on the stage in every single state in the USA fighting to win the presidency and a week later I’m back over in Scotland building what I think would be the greatest golf course ever.
“We love this country, we love our Scottish roots and what we’ve built here.”
But the relationship between the Trumps and Scotland’s leaders has recently become as frosty as the Balmedie dunes.
What did Eric Trump make of John Swinney’s plea to American voters?
“I don’t think Kamala Harris has even been to Scotland,” an incredulous Eric laments.
He is referring to the First Minister’s 11th hour appeal for Americans to vote Donald’s Democrat rival into power.
John Swinney said voters should support Kamala Harris, hinting there were many reasons not to back the eventual Republican victor.
Eric insists this isn’t something his dad, no stranger to disapproval, would lose sleep about.
But he’s still bristling at the “foolish” interjection, which he reckons might weaken Swinney’s standing in the Oval Office.
‘Let me vent for a bit’
Eric leans back, takes a pause and sighs. “Right, let me vent for a bit.”
“In what universe,” he begins…
“Do we think it’s a good idea, two days before a presidential election, to go and endorse a person who has probably never even set foot in Scotland.
“And he got it so damn wrong. It was arguably the greatest landslide win in American history.
“It probably embarrassed him. He read the tea leaves the wrong way.”
And while he maintains that such remarks are like water off a duck’s back to the president elect, he reckons this “will make it harder for this person to pick up the phone to the Oval Office when he has a problem”.
He almost quotes a famous movie line as he speculates on his dad’s viewpoint.
“Frankly I don’t think he gives a damn.”
However, asked whether John Swinney’s remark has changed their opinion of Scotland, he simply says “no”.
In fact, while the incoming US President can’t make it to Balmedie just yet, Eric says he will “most certainly be here for the opening of the second course”.
And what about the rest of the Trump Estate plans?
The family’s vision for their slice of the Aberdeenshire coastline go beyond adding a second course, with plans for 500 houses and 50 holiday homes earmarked for the estate too.
It’s now more than four years since councillors approved the £150 million proposals, despite thousands of objections.
In 2022, lawyers hammered out a deal on how much Trump International would have to pay Aberdeenshire Council for the project.
However, it comes after years of losses, with a pre-tax loss of £1.4 million in 2023, after nearly a £740,000 deficit in 2022.
So when might they be built?
Eric explains that he doesn’t look at this like a typical housing development – it’s more of “an art project”.
That means they “will take as much time as they need” to perfect every detail to make them “exceptional”.
Right now, he adds, it’s all about making sure the second course is perfect – and all the amenities are in place to make this an attractive place to live.
And as this chat draws to an end, he grins: “We are just having a blast, and we are not stopping any time soon.”
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