Tonight @realDonaldTrump is sleeping at #TrumpTurnberry. We’ve been investigating the finances of his golf courses in Scotland and Ireland. They were purchased - and renovated at a cost of tens of millions of dollars– all in cash. #OnAssignment
.@Rob_Weissman, president of @PublicCitizen, a watchdog group which has often criticized the president, says “it’s reasonable to say President Trump is getting a publicity value 100 times over what the cost of him visiting is.”
Weissman and his team at @PublicCitizen crunched the numbers and estimate that @realDonaldTrump’s golf weekend in Scotland is going to cost the US taxpayer around $1.9 mil. #TrumpUKVisit
The #TrumpTurnberry property cost @realDonaldTrump more than $50 million in 2014. He bought it even though it was losing money. Since then, he’s spent more than $85 million on renovations – but the resort continues to lose millions of dollars each year.
Golf writer @AlanShipnuck told us the Trump golf courses in Scotland and Ireland have become “sinkholes of money.” He added: “He’s spent so much money to build the course – he’s not getting it back.”
To try and make sense of the numbers – and why the president would keep putting money into losing investments – we tracked down Neil Hobday, former Trump project manager, who put together the first Trump golf investment in Scotland in 2006.
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#NATO Sec Gen @jensstoltenberg said the talks between @realDonaldTrump and other leaders had “made NATO stronger.” But some are still fearful about the President’s gravitation towards Putin’s #Russia.
Neil Hobday says @realDonaldTrump paid all of the expenses for the Aberdeen course in cash and that even Trump associates found that “very unusual.”
.@AlanShipnuck says that one of the biggest questions in the golf and political world is “where did the money come from” for the Trump Scottish and Irish courses #OnAssignment
Another golf writer, @jdodsonauthor, said that @EricTrump told him in 2013 “We have all the funding we need out of Russia.” Eric Trump denies saying that and calls Dodson’s report “fake news”.
Now we’ve got a report about the big #TrumpProtest today in London to mark the #TrumpUKvisit. @realDonaldTrump stayed away, complaining the British public had made him feel “unwelcome.”
At their joint press conference, 40 miles from London, @realDonaldTrump said he’d apologized to the PM – but also said that the recording of the interview would prove it was all #fakenews.
.@metpoliceuk tells @NBCNews: Officers from the counter terrorism network are working jointly with colleagues from Wiltshire Police regarding the incident in Amesbury. As Wiltshire Police have stated, they are keeping an open mind as to the circumstances surrounding the incident.
Amesbury is about 10 miles from Salisbury, where former Russian spy Sergei #Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned with the nerve agent Novichok in March.
“Thank you,” say the missing Thai boys as British divers finally find them inside the cave after 9 days. But it may still be months before rescuers can get them out. #ThaiCaveRescue nbcnews.com/nightly-news/v…
The boys were found about 2.5 miles from the mouth of the cave on a rock shelf. It took expert divers several hours to get to the group through narrow, twisting passages. Bringing them out will not be easy #ThaiCaveRescue
The Thai Army says the boys will need to learn to dive or wait up to 4 months for flooding to recede before they can get out. Food supplies are being sent in and authorities are trying to get power & phone lines into the cave so the boys can speak with their parents #ThaiCave
.@AmbJohnBolton meeting Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin - did they agree details of a Trump-Putin summit? Watch this space... #Russia#TrumpRussia
In their meeting, Putin told Bolton he would like to “take first steps to restore full-fledged relations between Russia & the US.” He added, “Russia has never been seeking confrontation.” #putin#russia#trumprussia
.@AmbJohnBolton replied, “I very much look forward to discussing with you... how to improve US-Russian relations. Find areas where we can agree & make progress together.” #Putin#Russia#TrumpRussia