Remember the brouhaha a couple months back about Air Force crews who stayed overnight at the Trump Turnberry golf resort in Scotland? The insinuations of corruption spread quickly, with the critics rolling out their favorite word, “emoluments.” But on this one the scandalmongers appear to owe President Trump an apology.
The Air Force on Friday released its official review of the matter, a 30-page report by the Air Mobility Command. Push past the jargon, and it’s pretty clear: “The data collected during this review convincingly confirmed that patterns across the 2015-2019 timeframe conform to use on the basis of operational military necessity.”
To dig in a little deeper, Scotland’s Prestwick Airport, which sits about 20 miles from the Trump Turnberry, is often preferred for operational reasons: It runs 24/7, with no quiet hours. It has long runways and fewer weight restrictions. Diplomatic clearances are easy to get from the United Kingdom, even for missions carrying hazardous cargo, and the weather is better than at other airfields in Britain.
From the beginning of 2015 through this August, 659 aircrews that went through Prestwick stayed overnight. Of the 545 for which paperwork was available, 77% slept in local hotels, and 17% stayed in Glasgow. A mere 6% went to the Trump Turnberry, and “only after other locations closer to the Prestwick Airport were determined to be unavailable based on the requirements of the aircrew.” Six of these crews lingered more than 24 hours, all of them delayed by maintenance or operational issues.
“Although the review found no instances of inappropriate decision-making by aircrews transiting Prestwick Airport,” the report says, it suggests some additional training. One thing commanders should specifically be taught to weigh: “Are there any obvious concerns to be considered about public perception of where the crew is lodging?”
In other words, there’s nothing to see here, other than hype from the President’s critics. Last year the Trump Turnberry lost almost $14 million, according to the Scotsman newspaper. Since Mr. Trump bought the place in 2014, the resort’s losses run to more than $50 million. If the President’s illicit “profiteering” was to inveigle the hotel patronage of 31 U.S. aircrews over five years, it would be the most trivial corruption in history. Judging by this Air Force report, it isn’t even that.
