An Air Force crew’s unusual stay-over at Trump’s Turnberry Golf Resort last spring has launched a House Oversight investigation that may have uncovered a bigger scandal.
In early Spring of this year, an Air National Guard crew made a routine trip from the U.S. to Kuwait to deliver esupplies.
What wasn’t routine was where the crew stopped along the way: President Donald Trump’s Turnberry resort, about 50 miles outside Glasgow, Scotland....
…The inquiry is part of a broader, previously unreported probe into U.S. military expenditures at and around the Trump property in Scotland. According to a letter the panel sent to the Pentagon in June, the military has spent $11 million on fuel at the Prestwick Airport — the closest airport to Trump Turnberry — since October 2017, fuel that would be cheaper if purchased at a U.S. military base. The letter also cites a Guardian report that the airport provided cut-rate rooms and free rounds of golf at Turnberry for U.S. military members.
Taken together, the incidents raise the possibility that the military has helped keep Trump’s Turnberry resort afloat — the property lost $4.5 million in 2017, but revenue went up $3 million in 2018.
The benefit to Trump’s bottom line is certainly looking into, but it may be the indirect benefit of propping up a troubled airport by buying fuel at higher prices that is the bigger boon-doggle:
Prestwick Airport has long been debt-ridden. The Scottish government bought it in 2013 for £1, but it has continued to lose money in the years since. In June, the government announced its intent to sell the airport, which the panel’s letter described as “integral” to the success of the Turnberry property, 30 miles away.
The grift continues.
The House dithers.
How long will this be allowed to go on?