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Trump’s golf ruck


Ruth Addicott talks to journalists about Trump and his battle for a golf course


I


f you’re a trainee reporter working on a small local paper on the west coast of Scotland, interviews don’t get much bigger than Donald Trump. Especially when you have an hour’s notice and 10-minute slot in which to do it.


It was back in 2014 when Edward Harbinson got the call. Harbinson was a trainee on the Ayr Advertiser when the news broke that Trump had bought Turnberry, an 800-acre site on the west coast of Scotland, and was promising to turn it into “the finest golf and spa resort in the world”. The purchase included Turnberry Castle and a lighthouse


built in 1873 by the family of Robert Louis Stevenson. The story was huge and Harbinson decided to try to get


an interview. A week later, just after lunch, an email arrived from New


York saying Trump would be available in an hour. “The Ayr Advertiser was my first job as a journalist so, for me, it was massive,” says Harbinson. “He hadn’t given interviews to any of the nationals – I think I was the first to speak to him about it. “Turnberry was always a prestigious venue, so there was a lot of surprise and, I guess, excitement.”


“We got some good quotes and led with him saying there


was going to be a ‘love fest’ between him and the community. I pitched him the name Trumpberry, but he said no to that.” Trump invested £200 million and re-named it Trump


Turnberry, with the hotel and Ailsa golf course re-opening in 2016. Former Ayr Advertiser journalist Sarah Hilley recalls


attending a press conference in 2014, held in front of Trump’s plane in a hangar at Prestwick airport. She was then given a guided tour of Trump’s private jet. “There was a mixture of local and national journalists and


we all had to put plastic covers on our shoes as he said guests can’t have dirty shoes on board,” she recalls. “The only reminder of still being in Prestwick was the


blustery wind sweeping through the gaping hangar door.” Hilley recalls Trump bounding up the steps, then turning around to give a peace sign, before flying off to Miami. Stephen Stewart was a reporter on the Daily Record and


sent down to Turnberry amid the prospect of protests (he recalls comedian Janey Godley holding up a placard saying ‘Trump is a c***’). “I heard him before I saw him,” says Stewart. “His loud, booming voice echoed round the clubhouse as we stood awaiting his arrival. Then, there was Donald Trump talking to his son – I forget which one. He made eye contact with me and looked distinctly uncomfortable. No idea why. I and a few


Reporting The Donald impartially


When former trainee reporter Edward Harbinson landed an interview with Trump, he was given one hour’s notice and a 10-minute slot. Although he wasn’t


20 | theJournalist


expecting it to go ahead, he had prepared his questions. The challenge was gaining


answers to all the questions he needed and getting Trump to stick to the point. “As


everyone knows, Trump can talk,” he says. “I knew he wasn’t going to confirm everything but I got some good stuff.” Former BBC journalist,


Colin Wight says reporting impartially was testing, with both local people and Trump’s associates accusing him of bias. “I always tried to challenge both sides,” he says.


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