President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he would “quickly” play a round of golf on his newly-opened Scottish course before returning to the U.S. to “put out fires all over the world.”
The president wrapped up a five-day visit to the U.K. by cutting the ribbon on a new golf course in the village of Balmedie on Scotland’s northern coast, his third in the country.
The event, promoted by the official White House social media account, included a fireworks display and bagpipers, and capped a five-day foreign trip in which the president hyped his family’s luxury properties and played multiple rounds of golf.
The trip is estimated to cost American taxpayers $10 million.
The president, flanked by his sons Eric and Don Jr., used a golden pair of scissors to cut a red ribbon at the ceremonial opening, before speaking to reporters about his priorities.
“I look forward to playing it today,” Trump said. “We’re going to play it very quickly, and then I go back to [Washington] D.C. and we put out fires all over the world,” he said, alluding in part to a ceasefire between Thailand and Cambodia.
“We stopped a war ― we’ve stopped about five wars. So that’s much more important than playing golf.”
Before teeing off, Trump was asked about his recent break from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
On Monday, Trump rejected Netanyahu’s claim that there was “no starvation” in the Palestinian enclave by saying there is “real starvation” there. “You can’t fake that,” Trump added.
Ahead of beginning the front nine holes, Trump on Tuesday yelled back to a reporter that he and Netanyahu are “working together” to “get things straightened out for the world.”
The eclectic guest list at the new Trump International course opening included golfer Paul McGinley, Italian soccer legend Gianfranco Zola and Scottish First Minister John Swinney.
On his return to the U.S., Trump is likely to face more questions on the Jeffrey Epstein affair, as he did on Monday when he offered a new explanation of why he fell out with the disgraced financier.