Nicola Sturgeon warns Donald Trump not to take GOLF trip to Scotland

Donald Trump was warned today he would not be allowed into Scotland if he tried to visit to play golf instead of attending Joe Biden‘s inauguration.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon warned the soon to be ex-president that any trip across the Atlantic would breach coronavirus lockdown restrictions.

Glasgow’s Prestwick Airport, 30 miles from Mr Trump’s Turnberry golf resort in Ayrshire, is said to have been warned to expect a plane he uses on January 19. 

Mr Biden’s inauguration as the 46th president is due to take place in Washington DC the following day in a scaled-down ceremony due to the pandemic. 

Miss Sturgeon put Scotland into a lockdown last night, barring all but essential domestic and international travel in and out of the country as Covid-19 cases rise. 

Asked about a potential trip by the politician at a briefing today, Miss Sturgeon stressed it was now illegal to travel in or out of Scotland without a valid reason, adding: ‘Coming to play golf is not what I would consider to be an essential purpose.’

The White House has repeatedly refused to say what the outgoing president will do when Mr Biden is inaugurated on January 20, prompting speculation about whether Mr Trump will attend the ceremony.

Judd Deere, the deputy White House press secretary, told Fox News: ‘Anonymous sources who claim to know what the president is or is not considering have no idea. 

‘When President Trump has an announcement about his plans for January 20, he will let you know.’ 

But Prestwick Airport has been told to expect the arrival of a US military Boeing 757 aircraft previously used by Mr Trump on January 19, according to the Sunday Post.

Asked about speculation that Mr Trump could travel to Scotland in order to avoid the inauguration, Miss Sturgeon said: ‘I have no idea what Donald Trump’s travel plans are, you’ll be glad to know. 

‘I hope and expect that – as everybody expects, not everybody necessarily will hope – that the travel plan immediately that he has is to exit the White House. But beyond that I don’t know.

‘We are not allowing people to come in to Scotland without an essential purpose right now and that would apply to him, just as it applies to anybody else.’ 

It has also been claimed in the US that Mr Trump could announce a 2024 re-election bid during a flight on Air Force One on Mr Biden’s inauguration day. 

A source at Prestwick Airport told the Sunday Post: ‘There is a booking for an American military version of the Boeing 757 on January 19, the day before the inauguration.

‘That’s one that’s normally used by the Vice President but often used by the First Lady. Presidential flights tend to get booked far in advance, because of the work that has to be done around it.’

Last night, Mr Trump declared he would ‘fight like hell’ to hold on to the presidency and appealed to Republican politicians to reverse his election loss when they convene this week to confirm the Electoral College vote.

Mr Biden won the presidency with 306 electoral votes to Mr Trump’s 232.

He received 81,283,485 votes versus the incumbent’s 74,223,744, a margin of more than seven million in the popular vote. 

Mr Trump boasted at a rally in Georgia yesterday that he was the 2020 victor. 

He said: ‘Hello Georgia. By the way there’s no way we lost Georgia. That was a rigged election. But we’re still fighting it. And you’ll see what’s going to happen. We’ll talk about it.’

At another point in the rally, Mr Trump blasted Georgia’s Republican Governor Brian Kemp for refusing to do more to overturn the presidential election results.

He said: ‘I’m going to be here in a year and a half and I’m going to be campaigning against your governor and your crazy secretary of state, I guarantee you.’