Former Project Director Trump Golf Course In Scotland Says He Felt ‘Hoodwinked’ By Former President: ‘Scotland Fell For It’

Neil Hobday, the former project director for the Aberdeenshire golf course that Donald Trump built in Scotland, stated that he felt deceived by the former president.

The Aberdeenshire course opened in 2012. Trump stated he would spend £1 billion ($1.2 billion) on the project, but the funding never approached that level.

Hobday, a consultant project director for the Trump Organization, spoke to Trumped, a new BBC Sounds podcast revisits the controversy about approving the Trump International Golf Links course.

“I don’t think even if [Trump] could raise the money to build the whole thing out, he wanted the golf course, and that was it,” Hobday declared.

“He was willing to fight the environmental battle and create this impression that this was a $1 billion project and Scotland absolutely needed it,” he added. “But I think he never really had the money or the intention of finishing it.”

“I feel very hoodwinked and ashamed that I fell for it, and Scotland fell for it,” the former project director added. “We all fell for it. He was never going to do it.”

The Menie Estate is eight miles north of Aberdeen and was an unprotected stretch of sand dunes, meadows and woodlands before the former president unveiled plans in 2006 to turn it into what he promised to be “the world’s greatest golf course.”

The first official announcement by Trump International Golf Links expected the costs to be “in excess of $500m.” But by the time Trump landed in Scotland and appeared on TV, it had become a £1 billion development.

The plans received support from a sizable portion of the local business community, which was won over by the scale of the promised investment, which would attract major golf tournaments.

Trump International Scotland said in a statement that it invested “hundreds of millions of pounds” in the economy and had “delivered on its promise to build one of the greatest modern links golf courses of all time.”

However, some Menie Estate residents refused to sell to Trump. Environmentalists also shared concern over the impact of this development.

The northern part of the course covered part of a “Site of Special Scientific Interest,” considered one of Britain’s best examples of a mobile sand dune system.

After the course had been built, Scotland’s countryside watchdog ruled they lost their unique status as a nationally significant protected environment.

Scottish ministers granted planning permission, overruling the local council’s decision to dismiss the application, because the possible economic benefit would outrank environmental harm.

The Trump Organization said it spent around £100 million on the Aberdeenshire golf resort, but its recent accounts show that the facility has a net book value of £33.2 million and 81 workers.

The original proposal also approved a 450-room hotel, 950-holiday apartments, 36 golf villas and 500 houses for sale.

None of these elements, and the thousands of new jobs promised, have come to pass so far, and the golf resort has not turned a profit yet. It has racked up £13.3 million in losses ever since it opened.

Hobday was the one who had persuaded Trump to build the new course in Scotland.

While reading through a Sunday newspaper in 2005, he noticed an article suggesting that Trump considered growing his business empire in Europe.

“I thought, oh well, he’s into golf, he’s into property and development, and he’s half Scottish—maybe I should give him a call,” he explained.

Within months, Hobday was standing in Trump’s office in New York, flanked by Scottish government officials, making the case for investing in a golf course that could host The Open in Aberdeenshire.

He had then spent five years helping to develop the Aberdeenshire golf project before he quit in 2010.

Trump International Scotland claimed that the 2008 financial crash and the Covid-19 pandemic delayed the pace of its development plans in Aberdeenshire.

According to a statement from the firm, it invested “hundreds of millions of pounds into the Scottish economy,” and both the Menie course and Trump Turnberry are “globally acclaimed and responsible for driving thousands of international visitors into the country each year.”

“There are very few, if any, investors in the sport that have done more for Scottish golf in the past decade than Trump,” the firm said.

“In spite of the many global economic challenges, where other investors walked away – and despite spiteful opposition, the Trump Organization has remained steadfast in its commitment and delivered on its promise to build one of the greatest modern links golf courses of all time in Aberdeen,” it said.

In 2023, the ruling of Trump’s civil fraud trial, for which he was ordered to pay a $454 million fraud fine, found that he overvalued many properties by hundreds of millions of dollars, including one golf course in the U.S. and another in Scotland.

In January, New York City removed the Trump name from one of its golf courses after selling it to another operator.