Scottish secretary to give Trump a ‘warm welcome’

UK government Scottish Secretary Ian Murray has said he will give Donald Trump a "warm welcome" when he arrives in Scotland on Friday.

Murray told the BBC he "expected" to meet with the US president at some point during his four-day trip to the country.

Trump is due to visit his golf resorts at Turnberry, in South Ayrshire, and Menie, in Aberdeenshire, and will meet prime minister Sir Keir Starmer and first minister John Swinney.

This is a "private" trip and the president will return to the UK in September for an official state visit, which will include a meeting with King Charles.

Murray toldBBC Radio's Good Morning Scotlandhis meeting with the president was "unconfirmed".

Trump isfree to set his own schedule during the visit, his first to Scotland since breaking ground on a new course at Trump International in Menie in 2023.

The Scottish Secretary is the cabinet minister who represent Scottish interests within the UK government.

He said it was in the "national interest" to ensure Trump received a warm welcome in Scotland, where thepresident has family ties.

"It's expected but not fully confirmed yet," Murray said when asked if he would meet Trump.

"The details are still being worked out."

He added: "Of course it's a warm welcome.

"We would always have a warm welcome for the president of the United States - and the office of the United States and the office of the prime minister work very closely together.

"My predecessor, David Mundell, met with the president when he last landed in Scotland so it's a duty for us to make sure we are welcoming foreign dignitaries to Scotland in the right way, particularly one that is our closest and nearest ally both economically and in defence and security."

Trump opened Trump International in 2012 amid a storm of controversy and bought Turnberry from a Dubai-based firm two years later.

Heoriginally planned to name the second course at Menie after his mother, Mary-Anne MacLeod Trump, a native Gaelic speaker born on the Isle of Lewis.

In April 2019, Murrayvoted in favour of a motion raised in the House of Commonswhich called on then-prime minister Theresa May to rescind the offer of an official state visit to Trump during his first term.

The motion, tabled by Labour's Stephen Doughty, said the House "deplored" Trump's "misogynism, racism and xenophobia" among other criticisms of his time in office.

When asked if his view had changed since then, Murray said there was "global interest" in preserving the relationship between the UK and US.

He told the programme: "The long historic ties, cultural ties, economic ties between the US and the UK, we are the closest allies in the world and we have to make sure we are working together for the benefit of our national interest and the benefit of the global interest as well.

"Given the US is our closest ally, given we have just done a trade agreement with them to remove tariffs for the benefit of UK and Scottish businesses and given global events at the moment, it is really, really important for these historic ties to work with our global allies."

The Scottish Conservatives shadow Scottish secretary, Andrew Bowie, said Murray had performed a "complete U-turn" on his view of Trump.

He said: "I'm glad that Ian Murray has belatedly recognised how vital it is for Scotland to welcome, and work constructively with, the US president – but he'd have more credibility if he put his hands up and owned his past juvenile opportunism.

"No wonder the public are turned off by politics and politicians when they hear the Scottish secretary trying to take them for fools."

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