Turnberry awarded £50,000 contracts for Trump stay by US State Department

THE Trump family’s Turnberry resort is to be paid more than £50,000 by the US government to cover the US president’s stay there.

US government spending records revealed by The Scotsman show a contract for 30,074 dollars (£23,070) was awarded to SLC Turnberry Limited by the Department of State, covering the period from July 11 to August 8.

Another contract for 39,602 dollars (£30,379) was awarded for the period from July 10 to August 8.

The reason given for both contracts was “hotel rooms for VIP visit”, according to the usaspending.gov website which describes itself as the official source for spending data for the US Government.

Mr Trump and his wife Melania stayed at the Turnberry resort in Ayrshire during a private leg of their visit to the UK, after the president had meetings with Theresa May and the Queen.

They arrived at the resort on Friday July 13 and spent two nights there, with Mr Trump playing two rounds of golf over the weekend before leaving on Sunday afternoon.

On Saturday he was spotted playing golf with his son Eric on the famous Ailsa championship course.

They were jeered by a group of demonstrators who had gathered on Turnberry beach but Eric Trump described them as “phoney, paid protesters”.

He told the Ayrshire Post: “You saw people line the streets as my dad was driven down from Prestwick to Turnberry.

“It was an incredible welcome – but nobody wants to talk about that. Instead they focus on 25 people hiding in the dunes, half of them phoney, paid protesters surrounded by 50 cameras.

“It’s amazing that we have to put up with that, but we know the real story.”

Thousands of people demonstrated against Mr Trump’s UK visit with large-scale events in London, Glasgow and Edinburgh over the weekend.

Mr Trump resigned as director of SLC Turnberry the day before his inauguration as US President in January 2017.

A US State Department spokesman said it frequently assists other US agencies, including the Secret Service, with transportation arrangements and in making hotel bookings overseas.

The spokesman said the cost for those hotels rooms and additional transportation expenses are borne by the other agency.

George Sorial, executive vice president of the Trump Organisation, told The Scotsman: “For United States government patronage, our hotels charge room rates only at cost and we do not profit from these stays.”

SLC Turnberry is registered in the UK with Companies House and its directors include Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr.

It was announced on Tuesday a US secret service agent who suffered a stroke during President Trump’s visit to Turnberry had died in hospital.

The agent, a man with 19 years’ experience in the service, was in Scotland working on presidential protection when he fell ill on Sunday.

He had been receiving “critical care” from medics in Scotland but died on Tuesday morning, surrounded by family.