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Officials in Scotland approve plans for new Trump golf course

President Trump at Trump Turnberry Luxury Collection Resort in Turnberry, Scotland, in 2018. Photo: Leon Neal/Getty Images

Environmentalists criticized Aberdeenshire Council on Saturday for approving plans by President Trump's family business to build a second golf course in the region.

Driving the news: Locals and the Scottish Environment Protective Agency opposed the creation of the 18-hole golf course, to be named MacLeod after Trump's Scottish-born mother, Mary Anne MacLeod, next to his existing one. But the council on Friday agreed to the plans, per the Scotsman.

What they're saying: Bob Ward, of the London School of Economics' Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment told the Guardian, "This decision gives a green light to the Trump organisation to further vandalise and destroy Scotland’s natural heritage

"Aberdeenshire council and the Scottish government have ignored the objections of Scottish Natural Heritage about potential further damage to world-famous sand dunes that are supposed to be protected as a Site of Special Scientific Interest, but which have already been partially destroyed by the building of the first golf course."
— Ward
  • Trump International, Scotland and Aberdeenshire Council did not immediately respond to Axios' request for comment.

Flashback: Trump golf course damaged protected dunes in Scotland

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Why it matters: Biden intends to try to resume the 2015 nuclear deal, which Netanyahu vehemently opposes. The two are on a collision course, and memories are fresh of the crisis in U.S.-Israel relations when Netanyahu was publicly campaigning against Barack Obama's attempts to reach a deal — including in a speech to Congress.

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