We could have told Neil Hobday, the one-time project director of Trump's Aberdeenshire, Scotland golf course, not to believe Donald Trump"s promises, especially when it comes to money. Now it looks like Hobday, the town of Aberdeenshire and maybe the country has learned the hard way.
From The Hill:
In 2006, Trump purchased land near Aberdeen. He had planned for the 18-hole course to have a five-star hotel, villas and more, and was supported by the local economy looking for tourism and jobs.
In 2018, Trump’s golf course reportedly “destroyed the vast majority” of protected sand dunes in the area, despite a pledge not to. After opening in 2012, the golf course didn’t live up to its promises, losing millions.
BBC News reported that the Trump Organization said it spent around 100 million pounds on the Aberdeenshire golf resort, but new accounts show the facility has a value of 33.2 million pounds. It’s racked up 13.3 million pounds in losses since opening.
You don't say! But wait, there's more.
It turns out the project was also part of Trump's fraud for which he was just fined $464 million by a New York judge. Trump's financial statements claimed the course “had permission to build more residential homes than was the case,” the BBC reported. “New York's Attorney General had argued that if the values reflected the homes which have planning permission then it would be £164.1m less than what is stated,” the BBC said.
“The original proposal included approval for a 450-room hotel, 950 holiday apartments, 36 'golf villas' and 500 houses for sale but none of these have been built so far,” the BBC also reported in its September article.
Nevertheless, Trump got a second golf course there approved in 2020 despite objections from locals and the Scottish Environment Protection Agency.
Let's hope Scotland has its own Letitia James.
