Par for the course: Trump leaves trail to promote his Scottish golf club

AYR, Scotland — His poll numbers are sinking. He’s struggling to hire and keep staff. And his campaign has shockingly little cash on hand compared with his presumptive Democratic rival Hillary Clinton, vexing Republicans already worried about his ability to survive a bruising general election campaign.

But Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, is set to take a detour from the campaign trail Thursday to travel to Scotland, where he will cut the ribbon at the grand reopening of a century-old golf course he owns here along the lush seacoast of southwestern Scotland.

Trump is hardly the first presidential candidate to travel overseas in the midst of a heated campaign. But unlike Barack Obama or Mitt Romney, who headed abroad during their presidential efforts to emphasize their command of foreign affairs, the New York real estate mogul is not scheduled to meet with any world leaders or take any policy meetings. Trump will be here just to promote Trump, the business brand.

That’s not an unusual development for the reality television star turned political candidate, who has never been shy about promoting his business interests during his insurgent bid for the presidency.

In the midst of the tumultuous GOP primary, Trump famously used a press conference to talk up his line of Trump-branded products, including his wine, bottled water and even a platter of raw steaks he claimed were Trump Steaks, though that was later disputed by a local butcher who claimed to have provided the meat. And instead of public rallies, Trump held election night events that also served as a tour of his real estate portfolio, including press conferences at golf clubs in Florida and New York, Trump Tower in Manhattan and his opulent Mar-a-Lago beach club in Palm Beach, Fla.

When he makes his first official appearance of the trip to Scotland on Friday morning, the GOP candidate is again set to take his traveling press corps on something more like a public relations junket than an event featuring someone who could potentially be the next leader of the free world. In addition to a press conference, reporters are scheduled to observe Trump and his family arrive in their company’s Trump-branded helicopter and participate in photo opportunities around the newly reopened Trump Turnberry resort.

While Trump’s two-day visit to Scotland, where his mother emigrated from, will no doubt showcase his eccentricities as a candidate seemingly willing to break all the rules of what it means to run for president, it could also potentially highlight the dangers in how he has merged his corporate and political interests. He hopes his career as a successful businessman will sway voters in November, but the fallout from the divisive views he’s expressed as a candidate also threatens to undermine his business.

In the tiny hamlet of Turnberry, a seacoast town nestled in the rolling hills of lush agricultural country, Trump — who is known around here as simply “the Donald” — was praised as a job savior in this economically challenged region in 2014. That was the year he purchased the iconic 115-year-old golf course and its 110-year-old hotel, which had lost tens of millions of dollars a year under previous owners.

Locals still credit Trump for reportedly investing nearly $300 million into renovating the Turnberry resort, describing it as a much-needed boost to the community, which was hard hit by the global financial crisis in 2008. But it is grudging praise, tempered by their distaste for the controversial political views that Trump has unapologetically expressed as a candidate and their concern that those views could drive away tourists who might choose to boycott the newest Trump property in protest.

“He’s a bampot,” a local cabdriver, who declined to be publicly named trashing Trump, said, using a Scottish slang word for “idiot,” as he sat parked waiting for passengers outside the rail station closest to the Turnberry resort. But the driver said he wished Trump “good luck” because he and others tied to the golf and tourism industry “need that good luck too.”

Trump’s anti-Muslim rhetoric, including his proposal to temporarily bar Muslims from entering the United States, generated particular backlash here. Last year, more than a half million people in the United Kingdom signed a petition calling on Trump to be barred from entering the U.K. The petition made it all the way to Parliament, which debated the issue in January but declined to act. According to BBC News, most of the signatures came from citizens of Scotland, a country where Trump was once branded a “business ambassador” — a ceremonial title that Scottish officials revoked last year in protest of his anti-Muslim views.

Equally controversial have been Trump’s comments about illegal immigration from Mexico, which he suggested was part of a Mexican government plot to send “rapists” and criminals over the U.S. border. Ahead of Trump’s arrival, some property owners here and in Aberdeen, a northern Scotland city where he is scheduled to visit another one of his golf resorts Saturday, have been flying the Mexican flag along with the Scottish flag as a sign of silent protest against the GOP candidate.

While a slew of dignitaries joined Trump at his previous appearances here, no Scottish officials “of any relevance” will be in attendance at Turnberry this week, according to local media. Trump bragged last month that he had been invited to meet with Prime Minister David Cameron, but this week’s itinerary does not include a stop at 10 Downing Street. Cameron, who has called Trump’s rhetoric “divisive,” “stupid” and “dangerous,” had downplayed the invitation, suggesting he would meet the GOP candidate out of protocol.

Likewise, rumors of a long-planned trip to Israel, tacked onto Trump’s swing through the U.K., did not materialize.

Trump’s visit comes during a potentially pivotal moment for the U.K. On Thursday, voters here were heading to the polls to decide whether the U.K. would remain a part of the European Union. The result is expected to be announced early Friday morning — just as Trump arrives to mark the reopening of his resort.

In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter last month, Trump seemed unaware of the term “Brexit,” the portmanteau widely used to discuss the British referendum. The movement to leave the EU has been likened to the anti-globalization themes that have partially fueled Trump’s own candidacy.

“Oh yeah, I think they should leave,” Trump said when the term was explained to him in the interview.

In recent weeks, Trump has more directly advocated the idea of Britain leaving the EU, though he hedged Wednesday in a Fox News interview. “I don’t think anybody should listen to me because I haven’t really focused on it very much,” he said.

As Trump heads overseas, many Republicans back home are mystified about the trip and its timing. His jaunt comes during what has been an unquestionably shaky period for the GOP candidate, including criticism from his own party that he’s wasted what could have been a month-long head start on the general election campaign against Hillary Clinton.

On Monday, Trump abruptly fired his campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski. The mogul explained the move by saying he would pursue a “different campaign.” That was followed by Wednesday’s much-anticipated speech in which Trump went after Clinton, accusing her of being a failed secretary of state and politician who has used her role as a public servant to boost her own bank account.

While many GOP insiders viewed the staff shake-up and the Clinton speech as a positive sign that Trump might finally be starting to mount a more serious general election campaign, the Scotland trip, one Republican said, proves that Trump still isn’t the candidate he needs to be. One party official, who declined to be named while discussing private conversations with the Trump campaign, said senior Republicans pressed Trump and his advisers to postpone the trip or “at least add something of substance” to the itinerary to make it worthwhile.

According to campaign sources, Trump considered the advice — pressing aides as late as last week on whether he should skip the trip. While some suggested he should stay on the campaign trail at home, Trump, who has often said he is his own strategist, ultimately overruled them.