Green Party leader Zack Polanski said Donald Trump should be “kicked out” of his Scottish golf courses during a campaign visit to Glasgow on Friday, prompting Trump International Scotland to denounce the remarks as “ludicrous and ignorant” and brand him “an imbecile”.
Polanski, who was campaigning with Scottish Greens co-leaders Ross Greer and Gillian Mackay ahead of the 7 May Scottish Parliament election, said he regarded the US president as dangerous and unpredictable and that the UK should be discussing sanctions against him.
Trump International Scotland responded quickly. Sarah Malone, the company’s executive vice-president, rejected the comments in sharply personal terms, saying Polanski had voiced a personal opinion on the Holyrood campaign trail. She described his remarks as “ludicrous and ignorant” and called him “an imbecile”.
The exchange came as the Scottish Greens sought to use Polanski’s visit to reinforce their appeal to left-leaning voters in the final stretch of the campaign. Party materials promoting the visit said the Scottish Greens could “replace Labour”.
There was no indication on Friday of any immediate legal or governmental move affecting Trump’s Scottish businesses. His interests in Scotland, held through the Trump Organization, comprise Trump Turnberry in South Ayrshire and Trump International Golf Links in Aberdeenshire. After Trump officially opened a second Aberdeenshire course on 29 July 2025, the company was operating three courses across those two resorts.
Trump’s Scottish holdings have been politically contentious for years. His Menie development, on about 1,400 acres north of Aberdeen, was first proposed in 2006 on a protected stretch of coast and faced opposition from residents and conservation groups. Aberdeenshire Council rejected the plan in 2007, but the Scottish Government later granted outline planning permission in principle in 2008. The first course opened in 2012.
The Menie project also became a long-running local dispute. Fisherman Michael Forbes, who refused to sell his property within the estate, became a high-profile symbol of opposition to the development. Trump later lost a Supreme Court challenge in 2015 over an offshore wind project near the site.
The Trump Organization bought the 800-acre Turnberry resort in 2014 for $60m, according to a Scottish Government briefing note released last year. The same paper described the resorts as significant employers, citing 81 staff at Trump International Scotland, based on 2022 company data, and between 260 and 280 employees at Turnberry. Turnberry has not staged The Open since 2009.
Trump’s Scottish courses have repeatedly become a focus for wider protests over his politics. In December 2024 the Scottish Greens criticised First Minister John Swinney for taking what they described as a positive introductory phone call with Trump. On 8 March 2025 pro-Palestinian activists vandalised Turnberry, painting the slogan “Gaza Is Not For Sale” on the lawn.
When Trump visited Scotland in July 2025, protests were organised in Edinburgh and elsewhere as he played golf at Turnberry and travelled to Aberdeenshire. During that trip he opened the new course at Trump International on 29 July, with Swinney attending the ceremony.
The Scottish Government’s decision that month to commit £180,000 of public money to support the 2025 Nexo Championship at Trump International also drew criticism. Patrick Harvie, a senior Scottish Green figure at the time, said the move “shames Scotland”.
The dispute has resurfaced again this week after Greenpeace activists staged a demonstration at Turnberry on 20 April, placing six mock wind turbines on the fourth green to protest at Trump’s opposition to renewable energy.
Trump remains deeply unpopular in Scotland. Ipsos Scotland’s Political Pulse survey in March found 74% of adults held an unfavourable view of him, compared with 12% who viewed him favourably and 9% who said they were neither favourable nor unfavourable.
Trump has often linked his investment in Scotland to his family roots through his mother, who was born on Lewis. Speaking about the Menie project in 2008, he said that “if it weren’t for my mother” he would probably have walked away from it.
Friday’s clash returned Trump’s Scottish resorts to the centre of election campaigning, with the Scottish Greens again arguing against treating the properties as ordinary commercial assets while ministers have continued to engage with them as part of Scotland’s golf and tourism economy.
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