Former first minister Alex Salmond says Donald Trump and his team should feel nothing but shame after a key cheerleader for the original “£1 billion” resort admitted he now feels “hoodwinked”.
Mr Salmond, who led the Scottish Government at the time, reacted after former resort director Neil Hobday described his dramatically changed view about the Aberdeenshire development.
Speaking to the BBC, Mr Hobday said: “I felt hoodwinked and ashamed that I fell for it, and that Scotland fell for it.”
‘Broken promises’
Reacting to Mr Hobday’s comments today, Mr Salmond told the P&J: “The only shame involved should be that of Donald Trump and the others at the top of his organisation.
“The undertakings were not given in private but to a public local inquiry in Aberdeen in 2008 which recommended planning approval of the project.
“Failure to abide by solemn undertakings should indeed be a matter of shame for those who made these promises and then broke them.”
Mr Hobday’s comments represent a big change of heart years after the project caused meltdown at Aberdeenshire Council, put residents through land disputes and turned into an international political mess.
It was Mr Hobday that first suggested building a golf course worthy of hosting The Open back in 2005.
Recounting his part in the drama for a P&J article in 2021, Mr Hobday was still continuing to defend the decision to develop on what were protected dunes.
“There was a lot of noise made from objectors,” he said at the time.
“That encouraged more noise and, of course Donald Trump being a fairly combative character, it became what was called ‘controversial’.”
When the Trump Organization announced the project in 2006, it was described as a £500 million plan. That figure quickly rose to £1 billion.
Promises of a 450-room hotel, 950 holiday apartments, 36 golf villas and 500 houses for sale are still to materialise.
Mr Hobday now thinks Trump would have said anything to get his course up and running – undermining a central argument made to planning authorities at the time.
“I don’t think even if he could raise the money to build the whole thing out, he wanted the golf course and that was it,” he told the BBC.
“I think he never really had the money or the intention of finishing it.
“I feel very hoodwinked and ashamed that I fell for it and Scotland fell for it. We all fell for it.
“He was never going to do it.”
‘No credibility’
Trump International Scotland said Mr Hobday has “no credibility”.
A statement responding to the claims and wider BBC interview added: “There are very few, if any, investors in the sport that have done more for Scottish golf in the past
decade than Trump.
“In spite of the many global economic challenges, where other investors walked
away – and despite spiteful opposition, the Trump Organization has remained steadfast in its commitment and delivered on its promise to build one of the greatest modern links golf courses of all time in Aberdeen and to protect the future of one of world’s greatest golf treasures.”
In 2010 Sarah Malone, executive vice president of the Menie course, and Trump’s head of international development George Sorial released statements quashing speculation that Mr Hobday had been fired.
She said then: “Neil Hobday has been a full-time consultant on the project for many years, and played an important role in the early stages of its development. Neil is currently pursuing other business interests and his departure was voluntary. We wish him well for the future.”
‘Dignified and quiet exit’
However tonight, in response to the BBC interview, she released another statement, branding Mr Hobday “bitter” and claimed he was in fact fired by the Trump Organization 14 years ago.
She said: “In 2010 we agreed to give him a dignified and quiet exit, as many businesses do in such situations – and I’m quite sure you know businesses make such statements when someone is sacked.
“However, more than a decade on, this man has chosen to shout about our business and make wildly offensive remarks. We therefore have a right to respond and put the record straight.
“He was fired and is an extremely bitter man.”
In 2010 Mr Hobday said he “categorically denied” being sacked by Trump, stating: “I have been a full-time consultant here for five years, which is a long time, and I fulfilled all of the objectives I was brought in to do.
“It is the right time to move on and I need time to continue to develop my own golf consultancy business.”
Read more about the tales of intrigue, threats of violence and destroyed friendships here.
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