Trump Triumphant After All

Filed in archive Golf News on November 9, 2008

Windblow lochs, er, locks. Courtesy: PA

Well, well. Who says money and politicians don't sleep together? It is certainly no surprise that Donald Trump has won approval for his enormous and enormously extravagant golf venture in northeastern Scotland.

I've been posting on the Trump saga almost since day one more than a year ago, a battle of environmentalists, several town councillors and at least one farmer against the might and wealth of the Trump empire - which includes strong influence over Scotland's current government leaders.

This week, the Scottish parliament approved the project rejected by the Aberdeenshire planning committee, saying its economic merits far outweighed any environmental concerns surrounding highly sensitive ecological areas.

Trump gets his way and is now set to begin a huge excavation and construction process to create a golf course ("the best golf course in the world", he says. But, as Tom English writes, all his courses are the best in the world...), a high-rise hotel and close to a thousand homes.

All this jammed along the Aberdeenshire coastline near tiny Balmedie, Scotland.

In its report to the Scottish parliament, the government argued that Trump's project would generate 1200 new jobs and inject almost 100 million dollars annually into the area economy.

Those are hard numbers to refute in the current economic environment, aren't they?

But, bad economic times or not, the point is that Donald Trump was always going to win this thing. Environmentalists don't shmooze with politicians, wining and dining them the way Trump does.

Environmentalists offer only conviction and viewpoints. In the mind of the government, that doesn't create jobs.