Reports: Trump Asked Brexit Architects To Oppose Wind Farms In Scotland

U.K. Independence Party leader Nigel Farage smiles as he arrives at Trump Tower, Saturday, Nov. 12, 2016, in New York. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)
U.K. Independence Party leader Nigel Farage smiles as he arrives at Trump Tower, Saturday, Nov. 12, 2016, in New York. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci)
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

During a meeting with leaders of the Brexit movement following the election, Donald Trump asked them to push back against offshore wind farms like the one that can be seen from his golf course in Scotland, according to reports in the New York Times and British paper The Express.

Trump has been fighting a wind farm off of the coast of Aberdeen for a while since the turbines can be seen from his golf course in Aberdeenshire, but he lost a court battle in December 2015.

Yet he raised the issue during a November meeting with Nigel Farage, the leader of the U.K. Independence Party, and two others involved in the Brexit campaign, Arron Banks and Andy Wigmore.

Wigmore, who coordinated the communications effort for the push for Britain to leave the European Union, told The Express and the New York Times that Trump asked them to oppose new wind farms.

“He did not say he hated wind farms as a concept; he just did not like them spoiling the views,” Wigmore told the New York Times.

He said that he and Banks already opposed wind farms and would be “campaigning against wind farms in England, Scotland and Wales.” Wigmore said that Trump “did suggest that we should campaign on it” and that the conversation “spurred us in and we will be going for it,” according to the New York Times.

Wigmore told The Express that Trump “is dismayed that his beloved Scotland has become over-run with ugly wind farms which he believes are a blight on the stunning landscape.”

Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks denied to the New York Times that Trump discussed wind farms during his meeting with Farage. When the Times told Hicks that Wigmore gave an account of the wind farm discussion, Hicks did not respond with further comment, according to the Times.

Latest Livewire

Notable Replies

  1. Good – keep exposing this sucker! Never let up!!

  2. “Trump spokes_____ _______________ denied ____________ that Trump discussed ____________ during his meeting with ____________. When ____________ told ____________ that ____________ gave an account of the ____________ discussion, ____________ did not respond with further comment, according to the ____________.”

    Might want to turn this into a macro. I expect this template will be getting a lot of use over the next 4 years.

  3. Avatar for cmj cmj says:

    so basically, everything Trump has accused HRC of he is doing a million-fold.

  4. Remember when Bill Clinton, Inc. was a big deal?..

  5. Avatar for sanni sanni says:

    Weeks before the advent of a Trump Presidency the man has shown promise to fulfill in reality every last charge of corruption and venality that he projected onto Secretary Clinton, and then some. Bonus points for attempting to shut down the free press through coercion and unleashing aggressive acts of racism and kicking off the public phase of the building of the new young nazi party er “alt right.”

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

31 more replies

Participants

Avatar for system1 Avatar for buckeyeborn Avatar for brooklyndweller Avatar for sysprog Avatar for dweb Avatar for steviedee111 Avatar for crackerjack Avatar for losamigos Avatar for whit Avatar for otterqueen Avatar for pippenpippen Avatar for ronbyers Avatar for fiftygigs Avatar for beattycat Avatar for clauscph Avatar for antisachetdethe Avatar for jim195 Avatar for albesure Avatar for sailor1939 Avatar for rickjones Avatar for jacksonhts Avatar for centralasiaexpat Avatar for overthefall96 Avatar for groundloop

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: