With a Meeting, Trump Renewed a British Wind Farm Fight
Source: New York Times
LONDON When President-elect Donald J. Trump met with the British politician Nigel Farage in recent days, he encouraged Mr. Farage and his entourage to oppose the kind of offshore wind farms that Mr. Trump believes will mar the pristine view from one of his two Scottish golf courses, according to one person present.
The meeting, held shortly after the presidential election, raises new questions about Mr. Trump's willingness to use the power of the presidency to advance his business interests. Mr. Trump has long opposed a wind farm planned near his course in Aberdeenshire, and he previously fought unsuccessfully all the way to Britains highest court to block it.
...
Hope Hicks, a spokeswoman for Mr. Trumps transition office, at first disputed that Mr. Trump had raised the subject of wind farms with Mr. Farage, suggesting that participants in the conversation denied this took place. However, when pressed with the fact that one of the meeting's attendees, Mr. Wigmore, had described the conversation in detail, she declined repeated requests to comment.
Amanda Miller, vice president for marketing at the Trump Organization, also declined through a spokeswoman to comment.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/21/business/with-a-meeting-trump-renewed-a-british-wind-farm-fight.html
Not just another emerging Trump conflict-of-interest story, but also another example of Trump's spindoctors swearing blind something didn't happen when it provably did.
I hesitate to give the Express clicks, but it is UKIP's house newspaper, so here's its version of the story:
Donald Trump's opening shot: The wind farm at his golf course
The US President-elect used his first meeting with a British politician since his shock White House victory to criticise the Scottish government for allowing the country to become over-run with wind farms.
In a meeting with the interim Ukip leader Nigel Farage and his team at Trump Tower in New York last weekend, the business tycoon launched into a tirade against the eyesores, which he has previously branded unattractive, ugly, noisy and dangerous.
...
"... one thing Mr Trump kept returning to was the issue of wind farms. He is a complete Anglophile and also absolutely adores Scotland which he thinks is one of the most beautiful places on Earth. But he is dismayed that his beloved Scotland has become over-run with ugly wind farms which he believes are a blight on the stunning landscape.
Mr Trump has fought a long-running battle against a wind farm off the coast from his Aberdeenshire course, Trump International Golf Links, which he has previously called an act of public vandalism.
http://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/734195/Donald-trump-Nigel-Farage-Scottish-wind-farms
Trump has tried in the past to use the experimental Vattenfall wind farm development, sited a couple of miles off the coast of his golf course at Menie in Aberdeenshire, as an excuse for not fulfilling his original promises of massive investment and job creation in the area. In reality, he didn't have enough money to complete the development, as he announced before the wind farm even became an issue: https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2011/jun/20/donald-trump-golf-resort-scotland .
Trump's also yet again displaying his ignorance of British politics and the fact that his beloved Scotland is a politically distinct country within the UK - the day after the Brexit referendum, he landed at his other Scottish golf course at Turnberry to crow and congratulate the Scottish people for voting Leave; in reality, Scotland voted overwhelmingly for Remain.
UKIP's support in Scotland is extremely thin on the ground, and Nigel Farage can barely set foot in Edinburgh without being cornered in a pub by an excited mob, so his chances of campaigning successfully against offshore investment in wind farms - even if he could be bothered, which I doubt as he prefers his targets human and vulnerable - are, well, slim.
Trump got drubbed in the UK Supreme Court in his last battle on this issue, and it obviously still rankles. Trying to throw his weight around in Scotland again - even as POTUS - is highly likely to backfire. He's not popular here, other than with paid-off lackeys and the usual idiots and arselickers, who mercifully aren't all that numerous, and we desperately need investment in harnessing the vast renewable energy resources that surround us. Much more than we need yet another golf course run by a buffoonish megalomaniac, for sure.
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