Several media outlets just blew the lid off of a major scandal in Trumpland. This story could have serious ramifications for former President Donald Trump and the Republican Party, as it seeks to regain control of the government in upcoming elections.
Business Insider on Friday published a report detailing the former president’s extensive abuse of sand dunes at his golf course in Scotland. In 2006, Trump bought a swath of coastal land in Aberdeenshire to build “the world’s best golf course.”
From the Insider:
There was noisy local opposition to the plan, but Trump had a relationship with Scotland’s then-first minister, Alex Salmond. In 2008, the Scottish government stepped in to approve his plan, touting the economic benefits the resort would bring to the country.
Despite warnings in 2008 that the construction of an 18-hole course would destroy the sand dunes around it, Trump had pressed ahead, saying: “We will stabilize the dunes. They will be there forever. This will be environmentally better after it [the course] is built than it is before.”
Unfortunately, according to satellite photos obtained by the Insider, Trump did not follow through on his promise. “[T]he part of the highly sensitive ecosystem on which Trump International Golf Links was built was largely ruined,” the author writes, adding:
Officials announced in December 2020 that the coastal sand dunes Trump’s [sic] the resort would lose their status as a protected environmental site because they had been partially destroyed.
The photos, which were taken by satellite technology company Maxar, revealed the gradual destruction of the Foveran Links sand dunes, which occurred between March 2010 and April 2021.
The Insider noted that the site in 2010 “contained areas of mobile sand and dunes that were semi-fixed in position, as well as marshes, dune grassland, and low-lying areas called dune slacks.” NatureScot, a Scottish conservation agency, stated that the area was “a very high-quality example of a sand dune system characteristic of north east Scotland and was of exceptional importance for the wide variety of coastal landforms and processes.”
Bob Ward, the policy and communications director at London School of Economics and Political Science’s (LSE) Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, told Insider that construction on top of the dunes had destroyed them. “Sand dunes are a dynamic system, they’re wind-driven, so they go backward and forwards,” he explained. He continued:
Building a golf course on top means you can’t have the dunes moving around, so they have to stabilize them. So they’ve essentially planted vegetation on top of them and put physical constraints on them so the dunes can’t move and it’s not a dynamic system anymore.
The argument the Trump International Golf Links used was that they’d protected them by stabilizing them. But essentially what they’ve done is they’ve just killed it as a natural environment.
Another issue in this story is that Avaaz, a global campaign group, has raised questions regarding how Trump financed the purchase of the land on which the golf course was constructed. They are currently suing the Scottish government because it refused to investigate the purchase.
Forget about Russiagate.
Forget about Ukraine.
Forget about the mean tweets.
This is the scandal that will bring about Trump’s political demise. The walls are closing in. It will be only a matter of time before Carl Bernstein sprints to a camera so he can say the sand dune scandal is “worse than Watergate.”
MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow is probably already preparing to elevate this story. In fact, Yahoo! News and The Hill have already published pieces on the topic. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will likely lead yet a second effort to impeach President Trump after he is out of office.
Bob Ward, the policy and communications director at London School of Economics and Political Science’s (LSE) Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, told Insider that construction on top of the dunes had destroyed them. “Sand dunes are a dynamic system, they’re wind-driven, so they go backward and forwards,” he explained. He continued:
Building a golf course on top means you can’t have the dunes moving around, so they have to stabilize them. So they’ve essentially planted vegetation on top of them and put physical constraints on them so the dunes can’t move and it’s not a dynamic system anymore.
The argument the Trump International Golf Links used was that they’d protected them by stabilizing them. But essentially what they’ve done is they’ve just killed it as a natural environment.
Another issue in this story is that Avaaz, a global campaign group, has raised questions regarding how Trump financed the purchase of the land on which the golf course was constructed. They are currently suing the Scottish government because it refused to investigate the purchase.
Forget about Russiagate.
Forget about Ukraine.
Forget about the mean tweets.
This is the scandal that will bring about Trump’s political demise. The walls are closing in. It will be only a matter of time before Carl Bernstein sprints to a camera so he can say the sand dune scandal is “worse than Watergate.”
MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow is probably already preparing to elevate this story. In fact, Yahoo! News and The Hill have already published pieces on the topic. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will likely lead yet a second effort to impeach President Trump after he is out of office.
This is going to get ugly.
Trump’s decision to viciously murder a series of sand dunes reveals how bad the orange man truly is. This unconscionable act cannot go unpunished. This will be one of the most significant issues the nation will face and is most certainly not a desperate attempt to attack the former president, because the activist media is running out of viable ways to distract us from the utter catastrophe that is the Biden administration.
When sand dunes are the subject of abuse, everyone must take notice. Hopefully, the nation will not have to stomach the idea of having a proven dune killer in the Oval Office. We must have some standards, after all.
