President Donald Trump went golfing at one of his resorts in Scotland over the weekend, ahead of his big face-to-face meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday.
“I have arrived in Scotland and will be at Trump Turnberry for two days of meetings, calls and hopefully, some golf – my primary form of exercise!” Trump said on Twitter Friday.
Trump said his expectations for the meeting with Putin in Helsinki meeting are low, but he also told CBS News that it’s a “good thing” to meet with Putin.
“Nothing bad is going to come out of it, and maybe some good will come out,” Trump said.
Foreign policy experts aren't so sure.
"I'm afraid," a former State Department official told The New Yorker. "Our guy here is like an amateur boxer going up against Muhammad Ali."
Before the meeting between Trump and Putin gets underway on Monday, the American president enjoyed a few rounds of golf on Saturday and Sunday, surrounded by protesters, police on horseback, and snipers. Take a look:
On Friday night, shortly after Trump arrived, a Greenpeace protester managed to paraglide stunningly close to Trump's resort, with a sign reading "Trump: Well Below Par #RESIST"
Source: Business Insider
So security was tight as Trump headed out on Saturday, club in hand.
Trump's 2018 financial disclosure form shows he pocketed an extra $6 million in revenue from the club he re-opened in 2016 during his first year in office.
Source: Business Insider
Snipers patrolled the seaside resort from above as Trump golfed.
And a small crowd of at least a dozen protesters carrying signs showed up on a nearby beach.
'yer Maw was an IMMIGRANT ye nugget,' one sign read. Trump's mother, Mary Anne, immigrated from Scotland in 1930.
Police were there on horseback to patrol the crowds.
Trump gave the protesters and onlookers a wave.
He also waved from the driver's seat of a golf cart.
Meanwhile in Helsinki, a much bigger crowd of roughly 2,500 protesters were out demonstrating in support of human rights, democracy, and environmental issues on Sunday, one day before Trump and Putin will meet in their city.
And these youngsters were out supporting the nationalist, right-wing, anti-immigrant stance of the True Finns political party on Sunday, welcoming Trump to the Finnish capital.
But the bulk of the people in the streets weren't happy that Trump is coming to their country to meet with Putin. "This is what these two men, Trump and Putin, have in common: contempt for democracy, contempt for international agreements, contempt for human rights,” Heidi Hautala, a member of the European Parliament from the Greens of Finland, told a rally.
Source: Reuters
Some protesters waved rainbow flags, while others held signs that read "make human rights great again," and "make peace great again," playing off Trump's campaign slogan.
Trump golfed on Sunday, too, according to the White House press pool.
