Brexit, which Donald Trump called a “good thing” for Britain and business, is now blamed by his son for the loss of millions of dollars suffered by the former president’s golf course in Scotland.
Trump has often praised Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union after the 2016 Brexit vote. He has compared the sentiment that led to the move to the feelings of his own isolationists who dislike immigration. “They’re angry about the border. They’re angry because people are coming into the country,” he said that year. “People want their country back.”
Trump also claimed Brexit would help his business. “When the pound goes down, more people come [his golf course in] Turnberry,” he predicted then.
But Trump’s Turnberry resort in South Ayrshire, Scotland, has reported a pretax loss for 2021 of £3.7 million, the Financial Times wrote Thursday. Trump International Golf Club Scotland Ltd., the parent of the course in Aberdeenshire, reported an additional loss of around £696,000, according to its financial report published on Wednesday.
The news comes amid Brexit’s impact on the flow of workers into the country. Eric Trump, who signed the financial accounts for Turnberry as a company director, wrote that the “staff pool” was not directly affected by Brexit, according to the BBC. He said that “the lack of access to European staff for business in general… [resulted] in higher demand for individuals before available at the resort.
As a result, Brexit has “impacted our business as our supply chain has been impacted by the availability of drivers and staff, reduced delivery and the availability of certain product lines,” the younger Trump wrote.
In addition, “the price has increased, from the addition of cargo costs and import duties,” he added.
He also partly blamed COVID-19, pointing out that the UK’s response to the pandemic led to the resort’s three-month closure at the start of 2021.
Donald Trump bought Turnberry in 2014 for $60 million. He built the Aberdeenshire course after buying 1,400 acres of land in 2006.
Turnberry has yet to show a profit in nearly ten years of ownership by the Trump family, noted the Financial Times. Aberdeenshire has lost millions.