Neil Hobday, former project director for former President Donald Trump’s golf course in Scotland, said he was “fooled” by the president’s claim that the country would spend £1 billion developing the site.
Hodvey told the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) that he felt “stunned and embarrassed” that he and Scotland had been fooled by Trump’s overestimation.
President Trump claimed to spend 1 billion British pounds, or about $1.2 billion, on new projects. Hobday was the consulting project director for President Trump’s Aberdeenshire golf course, which opened in 2012. BBC News reported.
In 2006, Trump purchased land near Aberdeen. He planned to build a five-star hotel and vacation homes on the 18-hole course, supporting the local economy with tourism and employment.
In 2018, President Trump’s golf course reportedly “destroyed a large portion” of protected sand dunes in the area, despite promising not to do so. After opening in 2012, the golf course failed to live up to its promise and lost millions of dollars.
BBC News reports that the Trump Organization spent around £100m on the Aberdeenshire golf resort, but new reports say the property is worth £33.2m. It has suffered losses of £13.3m since opening.
“Even if he was able to raise the money to build the whole thing, I don’t think he wanted a golf course and that’s all,” he said. “He was active in the fight against the environment and gave the impression that this was a billion dollar project that Scotland desperately needed. But he actually didn’t have the money or the ability to get it done. I don’t think there was any will.”
“I’m so ashamed that I fell for it and that Scotland fell for it. We all fell into it. He never meant it that way,” Mr Hobday said.
Trump’s Aberdeen-shire course was included in a New York civil fraud case that found Trump conspired to alter his net worth to obtain better tax and insurance benefits. A judge found Trump responsible and ordered him to pay more than $355 million in fines.
In May 2023, President Trump traveled to Scotland to break ground on a new golf course in honor of his mother, Mary Ann MacLeod, who was born on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland.
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