Property portfolio: here’s what the US President owns in the UK

Earlier than working for president, Mr Trump was one of the vital flamboyant billionaire in Americas, investing in properties within the UK, akin to residential buildings, industrial areas, inns, golf programs and estates.

Mr Trump’s internet value is $5.6 billion (£4.6bn), in line with Forbes. Of this, an estimated $1.1 billion is in actual property investments, together with Trump Tower, 17 condos on Trump Park Avenue and 4 Florida houses. An additional $1 billion (£777m) is in his 18 golf golf equipment and resorts, 11 of that are within the US, two in Indonesia, two within the Center East, one in Eire and two in Scotland, with an extra golf course to open subsequent yr.

From golf programs to historic buildings, right here’s a have a look at Mr Trump’s UK property portfolio.

The Trump Organisation, headed by the president, purchased the 1,400-acre Menie property, together with Menie Home (now renamed Trump MacLeod Home and Lodge), in 2006. Located eight miles north of Aberdeen, this wild stretch of sand dunes, meadows and woodlands was changed into a five-star golf resort referred to as Trump Worldwide Scotland, to a lot controversy.

The 18-hole Trump Worldwide Golf Hyperlinks course was opened in 2012, spanning 500 hectares. Its development has been blamed for damaging the dunes system at Foveran Hyperlinks and stripping it of its protected standing as a Website of Particular Scientific Curiosity (SSSI) in 2020. “There’s now not a motive to guard the dunes at Menie,” mentioned Eileen Stuart, the interim director of NatureScot on the time. “They don’t embrace sufficient of the particular, pure options for which they had been designated.”

Just lately, the person who helped dealer the deal for the golf resort advised the BBC he was “hoodwinked” by Mr Trump’s declare that he would make investments $1 billion (£777m) on the scheme – one thing that didn’t materialise. “He was keen to battle the environmental battle and create this impression that this was a $1bn venture and Scotland completely wanted it. However I feel he by no means actually had the cash or the intention of ending it.”

Macleod Home and Lodge, a part of Mr Trump’s Menie Property, is a former baronial mansion and searching lodge now turned five-star resort. The constructing, minimize from granite and sandstone, has foundations relationship again to the 14th century, however its present construction was designed in 1835, incorporating components of an earlier home in-built 1783. The lodge, however, is a transformed nineteenth century steady that shaped a part of the property’s authentic buildings.

Billed as “the last word Scottish retreat in essentially the most luxurious and unique setting”, the property has 16 bedrooms accessible for friends, together with a whisky bar, courtyard with sizzling tub and spa. It’s strolling distance from Mr Trump’s golf course and 22-acre driving vary. Rooms begin at £240 an evening, rising to £715 at peak occasions.

The Trump Organisation bought this 800-acre web site on the west coast of Scotland in 2014, intending to show it into “the best golf and spa resort on the earth”. It was already residence to a golf and spa resort on the time, with a resort relationship again to 1906 and updates made by a string of successive homeowners.

The Trump Organisation says it invested £200 million within the resort and Ailsa golf course, which reopened in 2016. As we speak, the resort additionally gives actions like clay capturing, archery, horse driving and falconry.

With the acquisition, Mr Trump additionally acquired the ruins of Turnberry Citadel —a thirteenth century construction constructed on the location of an earlier fortification— and a lighthouse, in-built 1873 by the household of Robert Louis Stevenson. As we speak, the 24-metre-high lighthouse has been transformed into what the Trump Organisation calls “the perfect midway home of the world” (sure, it likes superlatives), with a two-bedroom suite.

Notably, 2024 marked the primary yr for the reason that acquisition that Turnberry generated a revenue.

The 18-hole course spans tons of of acres of the rugged Aberdeenshire shoreline and claims to be “the best 36 holes on earth”, in line with Eric Trump, the president’s son and vice chairman of the Trump Organisation. “We now have the best sand dunes anyplace on the earth, the huge North Sea and essentially the most unbelievable land!”

The golf course has been met with staunch objection, with conservation specialists urging Aberdeenshire council to reject the proposal for the course, following the controversy surrounding the Trump Worldwide Golf Hyperlinks course. Trump Worldwide claims that the brand new course is “one of the vital environmentally pleasant and sustainable” ever constructed, however campaigners are usually not satisfied. The plans have been deemed “laughable” and “full nonsense”.

Mr Trump doesn’t personal property in London, to our information. On his earlier visits to the capital, he’s stayed at Winfield Home, the US ambassador’s residence on the sting of Regent’s Park. The property, designed by John Nash, stands behind fifteen-foot-high iron gates. It occupies 12.5 acres, making it the biggest non-public backyard in central London after Buckingham Palace.

When the US embassy relocated from Grosvenor Sq. to 9 Elms in 2018, Mr Trump wasn’t completely satisfied. He pulled out of chopping the ribbon on the opening, complaining concerning the new location. “Within the UK, in London, we had the perfect web site in all of London. One of the best web site,” he mentioned on the time. “They exit they usually purchase a horrible location. They usually construct a brand new embassy. That is the excellent news. The dangerous information is it price over a billion {dollars}.”