Colin Mackay: Behind the scenes of US President Donald Trump's working holiday in Scotland

“That’s him away”.

Its a line from the end of the great film Local Hero, which Andrea Brymer quoted to me standing on the 18th green of the New Course on the Menie Estate.

Marine One, the US President’s helicopter, whisked Trump away from an action packed few days in Scotland.

On previous visits by President Trump I have covered protests and the politics around the trip, but this was the first time I had been up close and seen a bit of how these things work and the sheer scale of it all.

I was on holiday last week so wasn’t involved in reporting the first few days of the most public private visit ever. It was quite a return to work on Monday though, knowing that I would be inside Turnberry at the Ballroom press conference ahead of the bi-lateral meeting between the President and Prime Minister.

That came about by pot luck. The Scottish Parliamentary Journalists Association was given two spots in the media pool alongside four Westminster reporters and the travelling White House press pack.

My name was drawn out of the hat for broadcasters and Andrew Learmonth of The Herald was drawn on the newspaper side.

My plan was always to ask about whisky tariffs, which seemed like the most pressing Scottish issue to raise with the President and the Prime Minister as they finalise the UK/US trade deal.

Under the deal as it stands they come under the 10% tariff rate, but the industry say that will cost £4m a week which will hit jobs and investment.

They are pushing for zero tariffs because Scotch Whisky can only be produced in Scotland, production can’t be moved to the US, and there is no similar tariff on bourbon imports from the US to the UK.

Before Monday I had only ever seen White House press briefings with the President on telly or online and they seemed like real bun-fights. All at the whim of President Trump, a bit of a free for all with journalists trying to catch the President’s eye or just outshout their colleagues.

There is no guarantee of getting to ask your question, let alone pressing POTUS for an answer. So I turned up at Turnberry on Monday more in hope than expectation.

In fact I turned up at a car park near Turnberry at 8.30am to be bussed in through the ring of steel. I turned up for a day at a five star hotel, with a packed lunch as instructed after a warning that lunch options would be restricted – that made me laugh.

They did actually provide sandwiches, shortbread and obviously for a Trump resort, millionaire’s shortbread. We were sequestered in a room in the Spa, from the window we could see the President’s car – known as the Beast.

These kind of events inevitably involve a lot of hanging about, in fact they are probably 90% hanging about.

We were allowed out of the room to go to the toilet – complete with gold coloured taps (almost everything is gold coloured) or visit the shop where you could buy a Maga hat at £55 or a pack of gold Trump playing cards (made in China, that made me laugh too) for £15.

For all Trump’s business credentials, I think he has missed a trick by not selling tartan Maga hats at Turnberry and Menie.

After five hours of hanging about, we were taken outside for the arrival of the Prime Minister and his wife. They were greeted on the steps of Turnberry by President Trump. This is when it really felt like the court of Trump. The President of the United States of America was meeting the Prime Minister in the UK but everything was on Trump’s terms, he was calling all the shots.

They stayed on the steps for a while as a piper played loudly in the background, then took some questions from the waiting press pack. I had been running over my question in my head, during the hanging about, in preparation for the press conference and was a bit surprised that he was taking so many questions on the steps.

What if this was it? Inevitably things were running late, they always do so what if there wasn’t going to be another chance? So I shouted, above the pipes, “Is there a better deal to be done on whisky tariffs?”. He answered “We’ll talk about that. I didn’t know whisky was a problem. I’m not a big whisky drinker”.

The President took about 15 minutes of questions on the steps, much of it drowned out by the piper. He spoke about Gaza, Russia, other parts of the trade deal and said the Prime Minister’s wife was well respected in America. That may well be the case, but I don’t imagine many Americans know who she is given how much she carefully keeps out of the spotlight.

Back in the holding room, no one knew what opportunity there would be for further questions, but after an hour of hanging about we were led round the back of the hotel, past dozens of golf buggies, including the President’s special armoured one – a kind of mini-beast or beastie – past the bins and in the back door to a store room filled tables and chairs for the Ballroom.

After half an hour of hanging about there were allowed in to the Ballroom where the President, the PM and their officials were waiting for us. I made sure I was near the front to try to nab a good spot.

I knew that my earlier question and answer had been drowned out a bit by the piper so was determined to get it in again. After a lot of hanging about I wasn’t taking any risks. These things last as long as the President lets them. He could take a couple of questions or dozens. It really does come down to who shouts the loudest or catches his eye. Realistically I wasn’t going to catch his eye but I am quite loud.

After questions on Russia and Gaza I took my chance – “Mr President, you say you love Scotland, you’re the most Scottish President ever (he likes being the most something ever). Is there a better deal to be done with the Prime Minister for Scottish industry, on whisky for example?” He then told us about his mother coming from Lewis, “serious Scotland” as he described it, he says he loves Scotland and the way he talks he does seem to have a genuine affection for Scotland.

I know he doesn’t like being interrupted and I know I can be a bit interrupt-y so I had to restrain myself as he went on about that. Eventually I followed up with “but is there a better deal to be done for Scotland, for whisky?” He said “I assume when we do our trade deal a lot of it comes to Scotland I hope, maybe all of it should go to Scotland.” He said that smiling at the Prime Minister who jumped in to say “it’s a very good deal for the whole United Kingdom”, but the President came back with “a lot of it is coming to Scotland, and I am very particular this is a part of the world I want to see thrive”.

The press conference continued for another hour, and it contained real news lines: cutting the deadline for a Russian ceasefire in Ukraine from 50 to ten or 12 days, recognising the humanitarian crisis in Gaza, although President Trump is still incredibly closely tied to Israel. Andrew Learmonth got his question in about the First Minister’s plans for another Independence Referendum, to which President Trump said he didn’t want to get involved in politics.

He had advice for the Prime Minister on tackling immigration and he took a question on wind power from the Press Association’s Craig Paton to pick up his lance and tilt at “windmills”, Donald Trump as Don Quixote. To give President Trump his due he took pretty much all the questions thrown at him. He didn’t answer them all directly, he rambled on and on at times, but in many of his answers there was a news nugget. The press conference ended after a few questions on the Epstein scandal – I think the US media threw them in just to shut him up.

The whole thing was quite an experience. Up close President Trump was more engaging than I had expected, more charismatic, but alternating between interesting and boring, funny and just plain barking.

I had one job to do at Turnberry on Monday. Get a line on Scotland. For me the news line was on whisky tariffs, and the President delivered. The First Minister and the whisky industry believe there is now a window of opportunity over the next few weeks to get the tariffs on whisky down, maybe even down to zero.

They think they’ve got until the President’s state visit in September. That’s when it will shift from the political travelling Court of Trump we’ve just seen, to the actual Court of King Charles, which is what President Trump really loves – “No-one does pomp and ceremony like you people”.