Scottish man lowers Mexican flag for last time after 4-year protest against golf club neighbour

A neighbour living next to Donald Trump’s golf course in Scotland has lowered a Mexican flag that he has flown as a symbol of defiance.

David Milne is among locals in Aberdeenshire who have been embroiled in long-running battles over access and land rights.

The residents on the Menie Estate are saying a guarded farewell from 3,500 miles away as the tycoon spends his last day in the White House.

While Mr Milne feels he and his fellow campaigners have seen off their nemesis for now, he will still be keeping the flag at the ready in his home next to International Golf Links in Balmedie.

The green, white and red standard went up alonsige the Scottish Saltire in 2016 after Trump spoke about building a wall between the US and Mexico.

Mr Milne said: ‘The flag is a symbol of success. It shows Trump can’t beat honest people with honest aims, no matter what games he plays.

‘It’s also a little show of support for the Mexican people with all the talk they have suffered, telling them that they are not alone.

‘It’s a little token that not’s going to be thrown away, it’s only going into a box and it will come back out again if it’s needed.

‘This is a guy I trust about as much as a nine-pound note.’

Mr Milne, 56, and his wife Moira are among residents on a pocket of land within the loss-making Golf Links course who refused to give up their homes so Trump could develop the resort. They have resisted compulsory purchase orders issued by the tycoon, whose mother was born in Scotland.

Mr Milne, a health and safety consultant, views the presidency as a blessing in that it kept the President preoccupied away from Balmedie and his other golf course, Trump Turnberry, 200 miles to the south in Ayrshire. They had earlier feared that he might be planning a trip across the Atlantic.

Mr Milne said: ‘The last four years have been relatively peaceful, with zero action and not a lot going on. That’s the only trouble with him coming out of office, this place may pick up again because he’s now going to have to find something to make himself relevant again. Having said that, given the stage he’s been playing on lately, this is relatively small scale.’

Trump visited Turnberry in 2016 but has had his eyes on other matters since his inauguration the following year.

Mr Milne said: ‘In the early days when they first came in it was absolutely horrendous. They tried to get us thrown out of our homes through the compulsory purchase. It’s not been fun having him as a neighbour but over the past few years they realised they wouldn’t be able to get rid of us and we could play the media cards as well as they could.’

The businessman had tried to persuade residents to leave their homes eight miles north of Aberdeen as he fought locals and environmentalists during the development of the resort, which opened in 2012.

He erected a boundary of fencing and grew trees around the Milnes’ land, blocking the sea view from their home in a former coastguard station.

Mr Milne’s response included becoming a figurehead representing locals who formed the Tripping Up Trump campaign

Trump’s representatives have said in the past that the Golf Links development was hampered by ‘red tape’ despite potentially generating thousands of jobs for the local economy.

Planning for a second resort in Aberdeenshire, named the MacLeod course after Trump’s mother, was approved in September 2019

Metro.co.uk has approached Trump’s representatives for comment.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.