Protest organisers anticipate a wave of resistance to Donald Trump from Ayrshire to Aberdeenshire this weekend as Scots take to the streets to express “widespread anger” at what they termed the US president’s increasingly extreme policies.
The US president is expected to arrive in Scotland on Friday for a five-day private visit to his luxury golf resorts at Turnberry in Ayrshire and Menie in Aberdeenshire.
While it is not a formal trip, Keir Starmer will hold talks in Scotland with Trump on Monday. No press conference is scheduled, but the media are expected to attend the start of the discussions – opening the possibility for another freewheeling question and answer session by the president.
There is no expectation the protests will bring disorder or disruption, the assistant chief constable Emma Bond, Police Scotland’s gold command for the operation, insisted at a pre-visit briefing on Tuesday.
But the Scottish Police Federation, which represents rank-and-file officers, said the scale of the policing operation would stretch resources and could double the time taken for a police officer to attend an incident elsewhere.
The Stop Trump Coalition is organising events in Aberdeen in the city centre and outside the US embassy in Edinburgh on Saturday at midday – similar gatherings during Trump’s visit to Scotland in 2018 attracted thousands of protesters.
Along with the two main city gatherings, protests are expected around Turnberry and Menie, where Trump is expected to open a new 18-hole golf course named in honour of his mother, Mary Anne MacLeod Trump, who was born on the Isle of Lewis.
Starmer is likely to travel to Scotland on Monday morning or late on Sunday, after attending the women’s Euro final in Switzerland, in which England are playing, although if the White House dinner on Sunday night goes ahead, he might have to change his plans.
Downing Street has given little information about the trip and Starmer’s role in it, saying that normal protocols do not apply because it is officially a private visit.
The White House has already said that a pool of 12 US journalists will be present at the talks with Starmer, and the expectation is that the UK media will aim to be represented as well.
While most initial greetings between world leaders are brief and uneventful, Trump has a habit of answering a number of questions shouted out to him, often creating news.
Before the last time Trump and Starmer met, at the G7 summit in Alberta, the US president answered questions on subjects including the possibility of tariffs on UK steel, Ukraine, and his stated affection for the prime minister.
Connor Dylan, the organiser of the anti-Trump protests in Aberdeen and Edinburgh, said: “The vast majority of people in Scotland were already opposed to everything Trump stood for when he first visited as president. As we’ve learned more and more about him and the way he governs, that attitude has only hardened.
“His politics – and those of the people around him – have only become more extreme since then, with once fringe ideas like mass deportations now part of mainstream American politics and being effectively exported to the UK and other European countries by far-right allies.”
A fellow organiser, Alena Ivanova, said she had heard from people across the country who planned to protest: “There’s a widespread anger and determination to come out from people across Scotland and calling on our elected leaders not to give Trump the acknowledgement and welcome he wants.”
While Police Scotland has pledged a “positive and engaged approach” to lawful protests, Ch Supt Rob Hay, president of the Association of Scottish Police Superintendents said the visit would require a “significant operation across the country over many days” which would “undoubtedly stretch all our resources from local policing divisions to specialist and support functions such as contact, command and control”.