The American media might have cowed to Trump over Epstein – but the British won’t
Donald Trump’s Scottish golfing mini-break could not arrive at a better time. The embattled US President doesn’t do “holidays”, but loves dropping in on his own resorts, where he can combine business with pleasure and is treated like a king.
There will be plenty of protests during his quasi-royal swing through his Aberdeenshire and Turnberry courses. Gratifyingly, however, assistant chief constable Emma Bond, the appropriately-named “gold command” for the operation, has said it will be Scotland’s biggest security operation since the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
That’s the spirit! There is nothing Trump likes better than comparisons to our late Queen. All the more so, given that he will be opening a second Aberdeen golf course in memory of his royalist mother, the bouffant-haired Mary MacLeod, a lass from the Hebridean island of Lewis, who moved to New York at 18.
The problem, as the saying goes, is politicians campaign in poetry and govern in prose. Try as he might to break this rule, America’s greatest showman is getting bogged down.
Back in the US, Trump is assailed by trifling irritants, such as the economy and foreign policy, that need his attention but don’t always yield to his commands, as well as scandals of his own making, such as the alleged Jeffrey Epstein “paedo-files” hot mess.
It is unhelpful, to say the least, that The Wall Street Journal, which has been kicked off the Scottish press tour over its scoop about an alleged lewd 50th birthday greeting to Epstein from Trump, keeps producing more seemingly well-sourced stories about the late financier. (Trump is suing owner Rupert Murdoch and parent company News Corp and claims the letter is “fake news”).
With naughty timing, the WSJ has just claimed that Lord Mandelson, the British ambassador to the US, is among a number of alleged celebrity and high-profile contributors to the leather-bound birthday book compiled in 2003 by Ghislaine Maxwell, now serving 20 years in jail for sex trafficking teenage girls on Epstein’s behalf (Mandelson has declined to comment).
According to the newspaper, Mandelson’s alleged greeting included photos of whiskey and a tropical island and described Epstein as his “best pal”. No wonder the peer has said about his past association with Epstein – like him, a supreme networker – “I wish I’d never met him in the first place.”
Americans will be more interested in the claim that former president Bill Clinton also sent a celebratory greeting to Epstein. Despite what now reads as a creepy reference to Epstein’s “childlike curiosity”, Clinton’s supposed message was more circumspect than Trump’s alleged drawing of a nude woman.
However, it is to Sir Keir Starmer’s advantage that Trump needs a reset. We don’t know how substantive talks will be on “refining” the US-UK trade deal, but while Trump can be relied on to make some undiplomatic comments – perhaps about the windmills off the coast of Aberdeenshire that he loathes – he has not come to cause a row with Britain.
There will be haggling over his 25 per cent tariffs on UK steel imports, hand-wringing over the collapse of Gaza ceasefire talks, and an attempt to drum up more US support for Ukraine, but these are just the hors d’oeuvres to Trump’s more theatrical state visit with King Charles in September.
This is the kind of pomp and circumstance the US President prefers. America’s hyperactive, but attention-deficit President has told advisers that he wants to get back on the road in America and gin up his supporters with campaign rallies. By commanding the stage he hopes to rekindle his direct relationship with his Maga base.
American voters are showing inconvenient signs of independence. This week an Economist/YouGov poll showed that only 38 per cent of Republicans thought the US was on the “right track”, with 68 per cent of Americans saying it was going in the “wrong” direction. In the same poll, Trump had a negative approval rating of 41 per cent approval to 55 per cent disapproval.
As soon as the holiday season is over, campaign prep will begin in earnest for the 2026 mid-term elections. Tony Fabrizio, the President’s pollster, told Politico, “It’s all about these last two years of his presidency and his legacy, and he doesn’t want the Democrats nipping at his heels all the time.”
Too many podcast bros and YouTubers who’ve made money off Trump – something he never forgets – have been veering off message over the allegedly missing (or non-existent) Epstein “client list” and need to be reminded who is boss.
Some of the biggest names appear to have have fallen back into line after Department of Justice officials visited Maxwell in prison this week. Newsmax’s Greg Kelly has suggested she may be a victim of “Me Too” sentencing and Charlie Kirk of Turning Point USA has proposed that cutting a deal with Trump to reduce her sentence would be “worthy of our praise, and worthy of our encouragement”.
The British media, however, remains untameable and awkward questions will continue to dog Trump’s visit.
Sarah Baxter is director of the Marie Colvin Center for International Reporting