Tripping Up Trump (TUT) has established itself as the popular movement against the use of compulsory purchase for private profit. TUT's campaign has stood alongside the people and protected environment threatened by Donald Trump’s development in Aberdeenshire.
The TUT campaign has been key to Donald Trump's retreat from the use of compulsory purchase orders.
The threat of forced evictions was deliberately held over the heads of the Menie families for nearly two years. Donald Trump's track record shows he cannot be trusted to behave reasonably towards his neighbours or act responsibly towards the environment.
TUT Tactics
We employed a lot of different techniques to highlight the wrong of the Trump development, here are some of our favourites:
The Bunker
The March of Menie
Menie Voices
The Main Events
A number of events were also hosted to raise awareness and show our support to the residents:
A Voice for the Voiceless
The threat of forced evictions was deliberately held over the heads of the Menie families for nearly two years. Donald Trump's track record showed he could not be trusted to behave reasonably towards his neighbours or act responsibly towards the environment.
The residents of Menie turned to the traditional avenues of support for help in their situation, the government, the police and the local press, but they found closed doors, as the bullying tactics and railroading of the Trump development were kept under the carpet.
Tripping Up Trump was a voice for the local residents, allowing their story to reach a wider audience and tell Scotland and the world how they had been treated and making it as difficult as possible for Trump to continue.
A Land Worth Protecting
The dunes and eco-system within Menie was unique, holding the classification of a Site of Special Scientific Interest. It's a beautiful land that had been home to wildlife.
Sadly, what made the Menie Dunes beautiful and unique, has been destroyed by Trump. A Site of Special Scientific Interest has been lost. Trump likes to think he's improved on nature and made it even more special.
One of the planning conditions was meant to be for Trump to have put a bond of money in place, in case the project was not fulfilled, which seems increasingly likely. Unfortunately it seems that planning condition may have been left out too.
Committed to the Cause
TUT was successful in deterring Trump and his organisation from pursuing a Compulsory Purchase Order against the residents of Menie. He has publicly declared this is an avenue he will no longer pursue.
As good as this sounds, we've seen Trump go back on his word many times before and we're not going to take our eyes off the development at Menie.
We are committed to the residents of Menie and ensuring that Trump doesn't use his bullying tactics any further. We are a movement and we are always ready to move. In the absence of support from traditional avenues we have been a voice for the local residents and we will continue do all we can to protect the residents of Menie and ensure that any damage to the beautiful dunes of Menie is as small as possible.
We'd love to hear from you
Tripping Up Trump is run by volunteers and therefore we ask for a bit of patience if you're trying to get in touch with us.
We will endeavour to update this site with any new developments in the Trump saga and there's loads of information on the site about the actions that Tripping Up Trump has taken as well as the wider story of the development. If you're looking for information on that a good place to start is the timeline.
Otherwise, if you'd like to get in touch the best place to do that is through our facebook page which we regularly update and check. We'd love to hear from you.
Friends of TUT
Maybe you've come to this site looking for one of our friends. We have worked with and collaborated with some fantastic people throughout the campaign. Maybe you're looking for:
Andy Wightman - Researcher who compiled report on Trump's development
Anthony Baxter - Film maker responsible for You've Been Trumped
David McCue - Artist behind the Art of the Deal
Alicia Bruce - Photographer who's portraits of the residents hang in the RSA
Boycott the Course
A LEADING figure in the golf world, who edits one of the sport’s top magazines with a readership around 500,000, is calling for a boycott of Donald Trump’s Scottish course.
Bill Elliott – editor-at-large of Golf Monthly – has vowed never to set foot on the course after watching the documentary You’ve Been Trumped, broadcast by the BBC in October.
And the influential chairman of the Association of Golf Writers urges the publication’s readers to do the same, saying: “I suggest you join me.”
The move was criticised last night by the Trump Organisation, which accused Mr Elliott of a “lack of editorial integrity” and claimed his position was “based upon a second-hand source that is a gross distortion of the truth”.
Menie Voices, TUT's newspaper that went out to 40,000 homes
Michael Forbes is Top Scot
An Aberdeenshire farmer who fought a long-running battle against American billionaire developer Donald Trump, has been named Top Scot at a high profile awards ceremony.
Michael Forbes took the honour at the Spirit of Scotland Awards where he was praised for his stance against the tycoon’s north-east golf development.
Mr Forbes won the Top Scot prize at the Glenfiddich Spirt of Scotland ceremony in Edinburgh.
Donald Trump once branded the farmer’s property, which borders the Menie Estate, as a slum.
Menie Voices, TUT's newspaper that went out to 40,000 homes
Trump’s Golf Course Opens for Business
Two of Scotland’s top golfers teed off with Donald Trump at the opening of his controversial £1bn golf course in Aberdeenshire today, despite calls for a boycott from conservationists.
The Scottish Wildlife Trust wrote an open letter urging golfers Colin Montgomerie, Paul Lawrie and Martin Laird not to play at the Trump International Golf Links course at Menie Estate on the grounds it was built on “a unique, protected area” with “nationally important landforms and wildlife”. Lawrie was unable to attend because of bad weather.
The course is situated on a stretch of 4,000 year-old coastal sand dunes that make up a section of the Foveran Links Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), a status that should protect the site from development. Despite fierce protest from environment groups, Trump was given the go-ahead for “stabilisation” of the dunes to construct the resort in 2008, as Scottish ministers deemed the economic benefits to outweigh the environmental costs.
An action group, Tripping Up Trump, has supported local residents opposed to the construction, and a film company called Montrose Pictures produced a documentary following the development. You’ve Been Trumped was shown in cinemas in Edinburgh, Glasgow and London last weekend to coincide with the course’s opening. A trailer for the film places footage of Trump stating “we’ve had tremendous support from the environmental groups”, alongside a spokesperson for the RSPB explaining that “the whole package is wrong”.
Menie Voices, TUT's newspaper that went out to 40,000 homes
The Bunker
The Bunker is a plot of land slap bang where Donald Trump wants to build his golf course.
Sign up for free and be part of the plot. Join us in The Bunker.
Stand with the local families of Menie who face eviction from their homes because of Donald Trump’s demand of Aberdeenshire Council to use compulsory purchase orders.
Trump said he didn’t need this land, but now he’s after the homes of local families and they won’t sell.
74% of Scottish people are against Trump on this basis. Just 13% support him. Over 15,000 of us have already signed a petition to Aberdeenshire Council in opposition.
Let’s stand up to the bully and stop the evictions.
Menie Voices, TUT's newspaper that went out to 40,000 homes
Wind Farm News
The American billionaire is at loggerheads with First Minister Alex Salmond over the 11-turbine development near his Aberdeenshire golf resort and the Government’s broader drive on renewables.
Mr Trump’s £10 million Menie Estate course opened in July but his plans for a hotel and homes in the area have been put on hold until a final decision is made on the wind farm proposal.
Ministers have yet to decide whether the turbines at the European Offshore Wind Development Centre (EOWDC), to be positioned 0.6 miles from the golf resort, can be built.
Menie Voices, TUT's newspaper that went out to 40,000 homes
Read all about it
One of the biggest challenges faced by the Tripping Up Trump campaign has been the one-sided pro-Trump ‘reporting’ in the Press & Journal and the Evening Express, the regional newspapers published by Aberdeen Journals. In December 2009 the editor even declared a media ban on TUT, denying the right of reply to Trump’s frequent press releases, and effectively guaranteeing that reporting of events at Menie became even more one-sided.
To counter this inbalance, the Tripping Up Trump campaign took the bold step of publishing its own newspaper – Menie Voices. It was distributed free to 40,000 homes throughout Aberdeenshire, and told the side of the story that Donald Trump and the Aberdeen Journals didn’t want people to hear.
You can read or download both historic issues of Menie Voices by clicking the links below.
Menie Voices, TUT's newspaper that went out to 40,000 homes
The Wightman Report
A damning independent report has been released exposing a trail of intimidatory behaviour and half-truths at the heart of Donald Trump’s development at Menie.
In a hard-hitting new investigative report, the Scottish land rights campaigner, Andy Wightman, exposes the true story behind the development of Donald Trumpʼs golf course at Menie in Aberdeenshire.
“Whatever one thinks about the merits of the planned golf course, there are serious questions to be asked about the actions of the Trump Organisation over the past few years, whether they have been straight with the public, and whether they are abiding by the range of conditions contained in their planning consent.”
In a detailed analysis of events over the past 5 years, Wightman looks in detail at how the Trump organisation has operated. The report reveals how legal threats have been made to one resident, how Donald Trump himself ordered the construction of earthworks to “get rid” of one of the houses and how the Trump Organisation tried to obtain consent for compulsory purchase orders. A detailed account is provided of the arrest of two journalists by Grampian Police, about allegations of land grabbing and about the media block on critics of the project by Aberdeen Journals.
“I hope the report sheds some light on the contradictory accounts that have been given of some of the issues such as the building of earthworks around one of the houses (1) and whether or not the Trump Organisation ever asked for compulsory powers to be used” (2), says Wightman, who concludes the report with this thought. Perhaps this vanity project will indeed end in tears on a rock of hubris and recrimination. If it does, at least the long suffering residents of the Menie Estate will be able to live in peace once more and those responsible for bringing about this saga can reflect on their role and consider whether this is in fact the kind of sustainable development we want in the new Scotland.
Donald Trumpʼs Ego Trip is available at www.andywightman.com/trump/index.htm
NOTES FOR EDITORS
Andy Wightman is a writer and researcher, a land rights activist and an adviser to a wide range of organisations on land matters.
Menie Voices, TUT's newspaper that went out to 40,000 homes
Meet The Residents
Donald Trump has asked the council to use their power to forcibly clear people from their homes, all in the name of a private golf course. Below are just a few of the locals that are threatened.
Menie Voices, TUT's newspaper that went out to 40,000 homes
You’ve Been Trumped
In this David and Goliath tale for the 21st Century, a group of proud Scottish homeowners take on Donald Trump, as the tycoon prepares to destroy one of Britain’s last stretches of coastal wilderness by building a luxury golf resort. As the locals make their last stand in the face of security harassment, legal threats and the cutting off of water and electricity supplies, director Anthony Baxter is thrown in jail as he seeks out the truth.
Menie Voices, TUT's newspaper that went out to 40,000 homes
The Art of the Deal
‘TRIUMPHANT? The Art of the Deal’ by Scottish Srtist David McCue consists of a series of oil paintings, an interactive ‘crazy golf’ sculpture, selected written correspondence and other artifacts. The works of art depict the ongoing psychological battle between American billionaire Donald Trump and Michael Forbes, the Scottish farmer, threatened by anticipated compulsory purchase orders by Aberdeenshire Council, that almost resulted in enforced eviction from his family home. Reflecting the ancient themes of territories, power, control and manipulation documented throughout art history, this confrontation is an aggressive, contemporary battle reliant on intellect, words and rights of law. The artworks focus on human psychology, motivation and emotion, questioning man’s role in the natural environment and the cost of our actions and decisions.
