EXCL Trump family is “frustrated” at being unable to pursue “foreign investments & opportunities” according to @realDonaldTrump’s seniormost UK executive, who says “everybody in the Trump Org is going to write a book” My @TheScotsman longread. Thread 👇 scotsman.com/news/world/tru…
The 90-minute event saw Sarah Malone, executive vice-president of @TrumpScotland, speak alongside her husband, @damianbates7, who interviewed Trump multiple times in the White House for a book he co-wrote with a former Trump Org executive. 
It was held in Destiny Church a controversial evangelical church in Glasgow. I attended it with 120 or so other folk last night. AFAIK this is the first time a Trump Org exec other than Eric, Don Jr & Ivanka's given a public talk since Nov ‘16. Sorry for my photography skills!
During the event, Malone referenced the Trump Org’s recently approved residential development at the resort, telling the audience: “If anyone wants to buy a house at the Trump Estate …” It may have been tongue in cheek, I'm not sure. Some folk did laugh.
Malone' busband, @damianbates7, who's met extensively with Trump over the past few years, also lashed out at media coverage of the Trump administration, criticising @BBCNews & the @washingtonpost's @realBobWoodward. Bates urged people to watch RT, the Kremlin-funded broadcaster.
Malone, unsurprisingly, praised her boss at length during the evening, but this quote stood out for me. She said Trump is "not inhibited by anything - rules, laws, policies, ways of working."
So, the main talking points from the free, ticketed event (although @damianbates7 was selling his book for £20) (i) Malone said the Trumps are frustrated at inability to pursue foreign deals that have been “put on hold.” She says Trump Org is ultimately a “development company.”
(ii) The Trump Org is clearly making plans for more overseas projects, although timescale isn't obvious. @damianbates7, pictured below, who @realDonaldTrump has called a “v smart guy,” said “all the [Trump Org’s] expansion is likely to be outside the US.”
(iii) Malone, who @realDonaldTrump calls the “Queen of Scotland,” (don't ask me why) expects her colleagues in the Trump Organisation to follow her husband’s lead and put pen to paper. “Everybody in the Trump Organisation is going to write a book,” she said.
(iv) Malone suggested Trump’s individual “liberties and freedoms” have been impacted by his presidency because he can no longer visit his Scottish properties for a round of golf as and when he pleases.
(v) @damianbates7, who interviewed POTUS in the WH, Mar-a-Lago & West Palm, says Trump turned down $65m deal for a new season of The Apprentice. A claim which seems striking given NBC’s 2015 decision to end its biz relationship with Trump after his remarks about Mexican nationals
(vi) Malone said she’s looking after £750m of business at @TrumpScotland (having initially misspoke and said £750,000). It's an interesting figure given the resort’s assets are valued at £31m, it’s made seven consecutive years of losses & is reliant on £40m+ loans from Trump.
Now, some context. If you're in the US, chances are you've never heard of Sarah Malone. But she's worked for Trump in Scotland for a decade and, I discovered this week, is also a director of two of his Irish firms into the bargain.
Malone was working a regimental military museum in Aberdeen when Trump hired her. How? He happened to be reading a Scottish newspaper article about his Aberdeenshire resort. There was a photo on the opposite page of Malone. He flew her to NY & offered her the job.
Similarly, you may not have heard of @damianbates7. He edited regional newspapers in Aberdeenshire and, rather famously, gave Trump a column during his campaign for the presidency. He married the Trump Org’s Sarah Malone in 2013.
After Malone got the Trump gig, Qs were asked by my newspaper about her CV, and in particular, her academic claims about the university she attended. She later said what she had claimed was "not technically accurate" scotsman.com/news-2-15012/u…
Bates attracted a degree of controversy for the coverage of Trump’s development in the newspapers he helmed. This article by @PrivateEyeNews is prophetic (although it turns out Bates only got dinner at the White House AFAIK, not a sleepover)
Bates and George Sorial - until April a Trump Org exec vice president & its chief compliance counsel - wrote this book. I won't spoil it, but my fav bit is about the chair @realDonaldTrump uses at the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office. It was shipped in from ... Trump Tower in NY
In addition to all this, Bates chairs a PR firm, lobbies Scottish politicians on behalf of oil & gas firms, and sits on the standards investigations panel of IPSO, the … *drum roll* … UK press regulator.
What’s also interesting is the venue for Bates & Malone’s talk. The church in Glasgow was founded by @TBN presenters, the Christian broadcasting network with ties to Trump admin. Another TBN presenter, @GovMikeHuckabee, has interviewed POTUS twice, & Pence & Pompeo have appeared.
Other @TBN figures who’ve attended Destiny events include Creflo Dollar, the ‘prosperity gospel’ evangelical preacher (pictured) who once urged his congregation to buy him a private jet. And Casey Treat, co-founder of the Seattle-based Christian Faith Centre megachurch.
Numerous other figures affiliated with @TBN, including Huckabee, Mike Rowe, Franklin Graham, and Kirk Cameron, have frequented Trump International Hotel in Washington DC, according to research compiled by the estimable US journalist, @Z_Everson
Destiny was banned last year by two churches (from the Church of Scotland and the Scottish Episcopal Church) from using their premises, after hosting John Mellor - a faith healer who claimed prayer can cure cancer and motor neurone disease - among other interesting folk.
There's other info I'll share, but I want to dig into it first to connect other leads. I’m grateful to the congregation and other visitors at the church for the warm welcome. Some seemed just as bamboozled by the presence of a senior Trump Org exec in their midst as I was.
You can find other Trump stories I've written on my website, martynmclaughlin.com. If you know more about Trump Org’s dealings in Scotland & Trump admin payments / transactions with his biz, my DMs are open. Secure email is martynmcl@protonmail.com. Thanks for reading!
