UK NEWS

TRUMP'S A LOCAL HERO

Donald Trump with family members

Tuesday June 10,2008

By Rod Mills

AMERICAN billionaire Donald Trump made a pilgrimage to his mother’s Hebridean home yesterday and was given a Local Hero’s welcome.

And, just like Burt Lancaster’s oil tycoon character from the film, there was a presidential wave as he stepped from his 727 jet at Stornoway airport, his distinctive hair blowing in the breeze.

Trump was visiting the former home of his mother in the village of Tong, on Lewis. Mary Anne Macleod left for the US in 1931 at 18 and met and married Donald’s father Fred in 1936. Fred became a property millionaire.

It was a brief stopover yesterday on Trump’s way to a public inquiry into his £1billion golf resort plans at Menie in Aberdeenshire.

Returning to the traditional croft for the first time since he was a toddler, Trump claimed it was only the family connection that had prevented him from walking away from the project.

He never forgot where he came from – and he came from here

Sister Maryanne

The tycoon made the briefest of visits to the inside of the 100-year-old grey pebble-dashed house at 5 Tong, proclaiming it “very nice” and in good condition.

He added: “I was here with my mother many years ago as a young child. It is nice to be here.”

Accompanied by eldest sister Maryanne Trump Barry, 71, a US Federal judge and regular visitor to Lewis, he chatted to relatives who still live in the village, four miles from Stornoway.

Donald’s two bachelor cousins, William Murray, a retired council building inspector, and his brother Alasdair occupy the family home.

Another cousin, Mary Anne Lamont, lives across the road at 5a Tong.

Sister Maryanne said: “My mother would be so proud seeing Donald here today. How well he has done, all the good he has done, the TV star that he is.

“He never forgot where he came from – and he came from here.”

In a surprise move the tycoon held private talks with Western Isles Council.

He has previously turned a deaf ear to pleas from the council to invest in the restoration of Lewis Castle.

But he revealed that not only was he considering helping, but also setting up charitable projects on Lewis in memory of his mother.

Mary Anne was a Gaelic speaker and part of the plans to restore the Victorian castle involve a museum with a major Gaelic archive.

Trump said: “We’ll certainly look at it. We are looking at a number of different things, charitable things. This is not the end. We will be back many times.”

The A-listed castle was built in 1848 for Sir James Matheson, who had bought the whole of Lewis for £190,000.

The castle was later acquired by Lord Leverhulme, who transformed it into an even more magnificent home as he embarked on his plans to turn Stornoway into the “Venice of the North.”

Denying the visit was a PR stunt to reinforce his Scot-tish roots before giving evidence to the public inquiry, Trump said: “I’ve waiting to do this for years. I’ll be back. It’s a great place. I feel very comfortable here.”

Cousin Calum Murray, 60, said: “It was nice to see him here.

I think this means a lot to him and it was emotional for him.”

Trump’s plans for Menie include two championship golf courses, a five-star hotel and housing.

The public local inquiry was ordered by Scottish ministers after Aberdeenshire Council rejected the plans last year.

Environmental groups claim the plans will destroy delicate sand dune systems but many business figures support the project.

Mary MacLeod Trump, a philanthropist who supported charities near her New York home and elsewhere, was the youngest of seven.

She died in 2000 at 88, a year after Fred C Trump’s death.