Trump’s biggest fear about Scottish independence appears to be about golf

Getty Images | Mirek Towski

Donald Trump at his Million Dollar Invitational 54 Hole Golf Tournament on Saint Vincent and The Grenadines

A transcript of a Wall Street Journal interview with President Donald Trump has revealed his concerns about what Scottish independence would mean for The Open golf championship.

“Is Scotland going to go for the vote, by the way?” Trump asked a Wall Street Journal reporter. “You don’t see it. It would be terrible. They just went through hell. They just went through hell.”

The president, added: “One little thing, what would they do with the British Open if they ever got out? They’d no longer have the British Open. Scotland. Keep it in Scotland.”

Trump owns two championship golf courses in Scotland. One is Trump Turnberry and the other is the Trump International Golf Links course just outside Aberdeen.

The president claims close ties to Scotland as his mother was born in the country.

Nationalist response

Proponents of Scottish independence took to Twitter to express glee at Trump’s statement, interpreting it as a boost to those Scots who want to leave the United Kingdom:

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This tweeter saw it as the perfect ad campaign.

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While this pro-independence activist estimated the difference it would make to the number of people who would vote for independence in any future referendum.

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Scotland voted by a margin of 55 percent to 45 percent to remain a part of the United Kingdom in a referendum in September 2014.

U.K. trade deal

After discussing golf, the interview with the Wall Street Journal’s editor-in-chief Gerard Baker then turned to trade with the U.K.

In response, the president said: “We have a very good relationship. I have a very good relationship with the prime minister. And we are absolutely looking to do a major trade deal.”

According to Politico, who published the transcript Tuesday, the interview took place in the Oval office on July 25.