Trump Says His Golf Course in Scotland ‘Furthers U.K. Relationship’

LONDON —

President Trump has implied that a golf course owned by way of the Trump Organization in Scotland facilitates cement the US’ courting with Britain only a few days after a Scottish court ruled that the organization needed to pay costs in a failed lawsuit. “Very pleased with possibly the finest golf path anywhere in the international,” Mr. Trump wrote on Twitter on Saturday, adding, “Also, furthers U.K. Dating!” The Trump International golfing course near Aberdeen, in northeastern Scotland, became ordered on Wednesday to cover the Scottish government’s criminal fees after the corporation changed into unsuccessful attempts to halt a North Sea wind electricity development.

Mr. Trump’s corporation had argued that the windmills could mar the view from the golfing path. The case went to the Supreme Court of the UK in December 2015, wherein the employer lost, putting in place the ruling about who should pay prices. The actual sum of the Trump Organization’s repayment now has to pay has now not been disclosed. The White House did not right away respond to a request for comment.

The president’s tweet induced bafflement and concern amongst a few criminal and ethics specialists. Thomas Lundmark, a professor of regulation at the University of Hull in northern England, said in a cellphone interview on Monday that the tweet “made me curious.”I don’t recognize what he’s speaking approximately,” Mr. Lundmark introduced. “Does it, also, a dating for him? For the United States? For us? How?”

Though the ruling in Scotland changed into opposition to Mr. Trump’s organization, Mr. Lundmark recommended that there had been constitutional and moral issues. The American Constitution prohibits the president from accepting bills from foreign and domestic governments. Mr. Trump owns golf publications, resorts, and different properties which overseas and domestic government officials frequent.

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Some have claimed that Mr. Trump’s merchandising of his residences at the same time as president amount to a contravention of the emoluments clauses in the Constitution. “He’s become companies over to different human beings to manage. However, he’s still a beneficiary,” Mr. Lundmark said. John Minarelli, an American professor of commercial law at Durham University in northeast England, said a “viable situation” that the constitutional regulations have been being violated. It changed into. Also, he delivered “a question of ethics.” “You need him to have our pastimes in thoughts when he’s handling foreign coverage — now not his very own,” Mr. Linarelli introduced.

Walter M. Shaub Jr. resigned his post because the United States government’s top ethics watchdog in July 2017 said in a tweet on Saturday that Mr. Trump’s remark changed into the president’s “maximum express commingling of personal hobbies and public workplace up to now.”

“This is shameless, corrupt, and repugnant presidential profiteering,” he brought. “This is an invitation to graft.” Mr. Shaub is now a senior adviser for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a nonprofit advocacy group. The institution sued Mr. Trump in January 2017, arguing that he becomes “illegally receiving payments from overseas governments.” The lawsuit cleared a hurdle remaining March while a federal choice in Maryland refused the Justice Department’s request to push aside it. In July, any other lawsuit accusing the president of violating the Constitution by keeping a financial hobby in his organization’s Washington inn became allowed to move to the evidence-accumulating degree.