Brexit, hailed by Donald Trump as a "great thing" for Britain and for business, is now being blamed by his son for millions of dollars in losses suffered by the former president's golf courses in Scotland.
Trump often extolled Britain's pullout from the European Union following the 2016 Brexit vote. He compared the sentiment fueling the move to the feelings of his own isolationist supporters angry about immigration. "They're angry over borders. They're angry over people coming into the country," he said that year. "People want to take their country back."
Trump also claimed Brexit would help his businesses. "When the pound goes down, more people are coming to [his golf course in] Turnberry, frankly," he predicted then.
But Trump's Turnberry resort in South Ayrshire, Scotland, has reported a pretax loss for 2021 of £3.7 million, the Financial Times reported Thursday. Trump International Golf Club Scotland Ltd., the parent of his course in Aberdeenshire, reported an additional loss of around £696,000, according to financial statements published Wednesday.
Brexit has reduced the number of workers coming into the country. Eric Trump, who signed off the financial accounts for Turnberry as director of the company, wrote that the "staffing pool" had been indirectly impacted by Brexit, the BBC reported. He added that a "lack of access to European staff for businesses in general ... [resulted] in greater demand for the individuals previously available at the resort."
Consequently, Brexit has "impacted our business as supply chains have been impacted by availability of drivers and staff, reducing deliveries and the availability of certain product lines," younger Trump said.
In addition, "prices have increased, from additional freight and import duty charges," he added.
He also partly blamed COVID-19, pointing out that the United Kingdom's response to the pandemic triggered a three-month closure of the resort at the start of 2021.
Donald Trump bought Turnberry in 2014 for $60 million. He built the Aberdeenshire course after he purchased 1,400 acres of land in 2006.
Turnberry has yet to show a profit in almost a decade of ownership by the Trump family, noted the Financial Times. Aberdeenshire has lost millions.
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