Donald Trump’s property is falling to pieces
For decades, Trump has relished in destroying everything from the environment and democratic institutions to relationships and reputations. While destruction is its own reward for Trump, he is also motived by profit. However, as a sadist, a con artist, and an oaf, Trump often guarantees that his destructive endeavors will result in a colossal mess.
A classic episode of this uniquely Trumpian perversity is playing out right now in Scotland. The story began in 2006, when Trump bought coastal land in Aberdeenshire to build “the world’s best golf course.” The first warnings that Trump would destroy the precious Foveran Links sand dune system there came in 2008. Thanks to Trump’s friendship with then-First Minister Alex Salmond, the Scottish government approved Trump’s 18-hole course while insisting it would bring riches to Scotland, and it opened in 2012.
Trump offered his own devout promise: “We will stabilize the dunes. They will be there forever. This will be environmentally better after it is built than it is before.” As the years passed, however, Trump slowly destroyed the dunes to the point where they lost their status as a protected environmental site. “There is now no longer a reason to protect the dunes,” Scotland’s nature agency NatureScot grimly announced in December 2020. “[T]hey do not include enough of the special, natural features for which they were designated.”
Business Insider has now obtained satellite images that reveal the extent of Trump’s desecration of this sensitive dune system that NatureScot described as being “of exceptional importance for the wide variety of coastal landforms and processes.” The images, which you can view here, portray a depressing tale of greed and deception along with a wanton disrespect for our planet.
The kicker is that Trump’s golf resort hasn’t even proven to be the economic boon that was so enthusiastically promised. Trump’s Scotland golf resorts, which also includes Turnberry, reported a $4.6 million annual loss early this year, bringing the eight-year total to a jaw-dropping $75 million. According to an analysis by HuffPost, the resort losses are in fact “so astronomical that the operations have raised suspicions of money laundering,”
When author James Dodson asked Eric Trump about funding in 2014, he allegedly boasted that the Trump Organization has “all the funding we need out of Russia,” a claim Eric later (of course) denied. Avaaz, a Scottish advocacy group, is now looking to get to the bottom of the mysterious funding. On Tuesday, Avaaz will try to convince Scotland’s highest civil court to direct the government to pursue an “unexplained-wealth order.”
If the order proceeds and the Trump Organization is compelled to reveal its funding sources, we may gain some critical, long overdue insight into Trump’s web of corruption and shady Russian dealings. After yet another shameful episode of Trump’s pointless destruction, it’s the very least that should happen.
Ron Leshnower is a lawyer and the author of several books, including President Trump’s Month