Scotland's First Minister and Leader of the Scottish National Party Nicola Sturgeon said Monday that US President Donald Trump will not be permitted to visit Scotland to play golf at the time of Biden's inauguration, noting that Trump must follow the country’s COVID-19 restrictions.
"We are not allowing people to come into Scotland without an essential purpose right now, and that would apply to him just as it would apply to anybody else," Sturgeon said, AFP reported.
"And coming to play golf is not what I would consider to be an essential purpose,” she added.
There had been speculation that Trump, who has yet to concede his electoral defeat to Biden, might not attend the January 20 inauguration and instead travel to his Turnberry golf resort in western Scotland.
The rumors that Trump would go play golf in Scotland instead of attending the inauguration first arose after a Scottish paper, the Sunday Post, reported that an American military version of a Boeing 757, which is sometimes used by Trump, is expected to land at a nearby airport on January 19.
The White House initially declined to comment on the Sunday Post report but later denied Trump had any plans to visit Scotland, the New York Times reported.
Scotland issued a stay-at-home order on Monday to stem the spread of a more transmissible variant of COVID-19, B.1.1.7, which was first detected in South East England last month.
Following on the heels of Scotland, England has also imposed a new lockdown over fears that the new variant could overwhelm the nation’s hospitals. According to the latest tally by the Times, the new variant of the virus has pushed new case numbers to almost 60,000 a day in London and South East England.