Intensive negotiations are continuing on Saturday between the EU and the US before a crunch meeting in Scotland between Donald Trump and the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, to avert a costly trade war.
Mr Trump spent the night at his family-owned Turnberry golf resort on a private visit, but took time to criticise European leaders over wind turbines and immigration claiming there won’t be a Europe unless they “get their act together”.
“I say two things to Europe. Stop the windmills. You’re ruining your countries. I really mean it, it’s so sad. You fly over and you see these windmills all over the place, ruining your beautiful fields and valleys and killing your birds,” he said.
“On immigration, you better get your act together,” he said. “You’re not going to have Europe any more.”
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On Saturday morning, he abandoned a scheduled meeting with the press, who travelled with him on Air Force One, for a round of golf at his seaside course with music blaring from the buggy he drove.
Sky News, stationed next to the course, reported the songs included Billy Joel’s Uptown Girl, Elaine Paige’s Memory and Simon and Garfunkel’s Bridge over Troubled Water.
Billed as a four-day family visit to Scotland, Mr Trump is meeting European leaders and the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, raising hopes of new and refined trade deals with the EU and the UK.
On the prospects of an EU trade deal, the US president has said there were “20 sticking points”. When asked what they were, he said: “Well, I don’t want to tell you what the sticking points are.”
He described Ms von der Leyen as a “highly respected woman” and said the meeting on Sunday with the EU chief would be “good”, rating the chances of a deal as “a good 50-50”.
Ms von der Leyen and her aides are due in on Saturday, with the European trade commissioner, Maros Sefcovic, arriving on Sunday.
It is expected the deal will centre on an outline agreement in principle over 15 per cent tariff rates for exports including cars, but with a 50 per cent tariff continuing on steel. There may also be a breakthrough deal on pharmaceuticals, setting a rate of 15 per cent for exports.
Although this would breach a longstanding World Trade Organisation agreement that medicines are rated at a zero tariff, it would be a far cry from the 200 per cent tariff Trump threatened to impose on pharmaceuticals earlier this month.
This would have triggered a highly damaging trade war not just with Ireland, where many US multinationals are based, but Germany, Denmark, Belgium, France and Spain.
Ms Von der Leyen’s spokesperson, Paula Pinho, said: “Intensive negotiations at technical and political [level] have been ongoing between the EU and US. Leaders will now take stock and consider the scope for a balanced outcome that provides stability and predictability for businesses and consumers on both sides of the Atlantic.”
It is believed the meeting will be held in Aberdeenshire and will be followed by a series of meetings with Mr Starmer on Monday, with hopes he will widen the bare bones trade deal he struck in May.
A major security operation surrounded the US president’s golf round at the start of a five-day-long private visit to Scotland.
A large number of police and military personnel have been spotted searching the grounds at the venue in South Ayrshire.
Various road closures have been put in place, with limited access for both locals and members of the media.
With no talks apparently scheduled for Saturday, the president – a well-known golf enthusiast – appears to be free to play the famous Turnberry course.
As well as visiting Trump Turnberry, Mr Trump will head to Aberdeenshire later in his visit and is expected to open a second course at his golf resort in Balmedie.
Hundreds of protesters gathered in Edinburgh and in Aberdeen – near the site of Mr Trump’s other Scottish golf resort – to make their opposition to the president known.
In Aberdeen, Green north east Scotland MSP Maggie Chapman told the crowd of hundreds: “We stand in solidarity not only against Trump but against everything he and his politics stand for.”
Speaking about the US president, she said: “He believes that climate change isn’t real, he believes that cutting services for those in the world with the least is the right thing to do.
“We say no to all of those things, not in our name, never in our name.”
She told the PA news agency: “He is not welcome in Scotland, he is certainly not welcome in Aberdeenshire.
“We also know that all of the promises he has repeatedly made to Scotland have come to nothing, there hasn’t been the development of jobs or houses that he promised when he opened his course in Aberdeenshire a few years ago.”
Anita Bhadani was one of those who organised the Stop Trump Coalition protest outside the US Consulate General’s office in Edinburgh.
“We are really excited, across this whole weekend, there’s so many campaign groups turning out in the streets, tacking in action in their communities or at rallies like this – it’s kind of like a carnival of resistance,” she said.
She said Mr Trump’s “huge promises” of creating thousands of jobs through development around his Scottish golf courses had not come to pass.
A number of speakers addressed the crowd, condemning Mr Trump, including one who chanted “death to the IDF” in apparent reference to the Israeli Defense Forces. - The Guardian and PA
