Image courtesy of USA Today.

The current American President began visiting his golf clubs last Friday (25th of July), mixing business with politics as he established a rhythm of golfing, interviews and talks with world leaders and British politicians. His speeches seem to focus on three major points, perhaps to look out for in future negotiations: tariffs, Ukraine and energy.

John Swinney has focused his time with President Trump on lobbying for Scotch whiskey, which is endangered by tariffs and the potential replacement by Irish or American whiskey. Whilst his American counterpart does not drink, the beverage must have given him headaches as the EU and UK battle to negotiate 0% tariffs on whiskey. Scotch whiskey faces a possible 35% tariff as single malt products are labelled premium; meanwhile, EU alternatives are impacted by the airliner disagreements, sparking tariff wars across the Atlantic. The British argument concerns the impossibility of substituting Scotch whiskey, whilst Ursula von der Leyen pushes home a more economic proposal that the EU and US could mutually profit from a 0% tariff agreement on distillers, boosting American whiskey sold to EU nations in return. Whilst the President may have Scottish roots, he owns resorts in both Scotland and Ireland, and a decision is yet to be taken. The President also smartly avoided the topic of Scottish independence, only praising the country’s history, landscapes and of course golf.

Nonetheless, the American president has equally been working on solutions for current international conflicts with his British allies. Following a helicopter tour of his resort in Balmedie, Trump sat down with Keir Starmer to discuss Gaza and Ukraine. After the Prime Minister presented a British plan for the Israeli conflict, Donald Trump assured him he was working with Netanyahu and focusing on aid. Meanwhile, talks on Russia accelerated Trump’s decisions, as the President lowered his deadline for a Ukraine ceasefire deal for the Kremlin to 10-12 days from a previous fifty on Monday. Whilst the Kremlin publicly took note of this declaration, strikes were continued the next day, killing dozens across Ukraine. Trump has threatened sanctions and additional tariffs on Russia if they do not comply with this deadline.

Yet his loudest declarations on exiting Air Force One upon his arrival in Scotland did not concern either the dramatic world conflicts or disputed tariffs threatening retaliation, but a topic that has consistently annoyed him on a personal level as he continued his rounds of golf between talks. Indeed, whilst rumours of the President’s dirty tactics and possible cheating at golf have spread across the Internet, he has rebuked clean energy and wind farms in favour of the ‘vast fortune to be made’ in North Sea gas and oil. Attacking the wind turbines that ‘kill the birds’ and the views from his estates, Trump has instead hedged his bets on declining reserves in the North Sea, promising the unlicensed sources could decrease energy costs compared to the ‘high costs’ of wind energy. Despite climate activists, research groups and politicians disagreeing with what could come at a high cost for the climate and estimating reserves to last only four or five more years, Trump has once again voiced his thoughts against the so-called ‘windmills’ and taxes on oil, declaring ‘bring back oil’.

Will Trump listen to Swinney and Starmer’s views on tariffs and conflicts? Will they listen to his demands on wind energy and oil? Will these topics be subject to reciprocal negotiations? And is the UK ready to make possibly terrible decisions on energy and fuel to appease Trump and resolve international conflicts? Whilst energy decisions seem easy to make, as wind energy becomes more and more sustainable, the added implications of tariffs and conflicts could make wind farms a heavy but profitable sacrifice for the economic future of the UK.