Donald Trump boasts of making great deals, but financial records filed in the UK show he has lost millions of dollars for three years running on a couple of his more recent big investments, his Scottish golf resorts.
A Companies House report shows losses last year at the two resorts more than doubled to £17.6 million (23 million dollars). Revenue also fell sharply.
In the report, Mr Trump’s company attributed the results partly to having shut down its Turnberry resort for half the year while building a new course there and fixing up an old one.
(Andrew Milligan/PA)
His company has faced several setbacks since it ventured into Scotland a dozen years ago and its troubles recently have mounted.
The company has angered some local residents near its second resort on the North Sea with what they say are its bullying tactics to make way for more development.
The company also has lost a court fight to stop an offshore wind farm near that resort, drew objections from environmental regulators over building plans there in August and appears at risk of losing a bid to host the coveted Scottish Open at its courses.
On behalf of the team @TrumpScotland we send our heartfelt congratulations to @realDonaldTrump & his family on this truly historic day pic.twitter.com/SwbEYRTleV
— Trump Scotland (@TrumpScotland) November 9, 2016
Amanda Miller, a spokeswoman for the Trump Organisation, declined to comment about the results.
Mr Trump handed over management of his company to his two adult sons before becoming US president, but still retains his financial interest in it.
It is not clear how big a role Mr Trump’s setbacks in Scotland have played in the losses. In addition to the Turnberry shutdown, the company also noted in its report that it took an £8 million (10 million dollar) loss due to fluctuations in the value of the pound last year.
The company reported that revenue at the two courses fell 21 percent to £9 million (11.7 million dollar) in 2016 from £11.4 million (15 million dollars) a year earlier.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here