Officials said the Guardian did not have credentials to enter golf resort in Scotland, a day after Trump called reporter for news outlet a ‘nasty, nasty guy’

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

The Guardian appeared on Saturday to have been barred by Donald Trump’s presidential campaign after a spat the previous day, when the presumptive Republican presidential nominee took offence over questioning about his allegedly “toxic” politics.



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A Guardian reporter and photographer were denied access to Trump’s golf resort in Aberdeen, Scotland, on Saturday morning, where Trump is on the second day of a two-day UK visit.

Trump broke off from the White House campaign trail for the visit to his golf resorts in Scotland, landing in Britain just hours after the UK opted for to leave the European Union in a historic referendum.

When two Guardian staff members arrived at the entrance to the Trump International Golf Links on Saturday morning, they were denied entry by staff. Officials at the event said the Guardian was not on the list and did not have credentials.

After a series of phone calls, they said the carpark for the press was full and so too was the marquee reserved for media covering Trump’s visit. The decision had come from the highest authority, they said.

David Martosko, US political editor of DailyMail.com, tweeted: “Security at Trump’s golf course in Aberdeen has pencilled in at top of press list ‘No Guardian or Buzzfeed’.”

Another journalist, photographer Matt Lloyd, tweeted from the resort: “[A]h ha, I guessed it driving passed you two. Lots of space in the car park and marquee, plenty of spare pastries too.”

At a press conference on Friday at his Turnberry golf course in Ayrshire, Trump took offence when the Guardian asked him why UK and Scottish senior politicians had not come to meet him, suggesting it might be because he was toxic. He replied by saying the questioner was a “nasty, nasty guy”.

On Saturday, two calls and an email to Trump Golf Scotland went unanswered. The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump has banned several newspapers and media organizations from campaign events. Buzzfeed was banned last year, after a 2014 report “36 Hours On The Fake Campaign Trail With Donald Trump”, angered the candidate.

The Washington Post was banned this month, after it reported Trump’s insinuation that “there’s something going on” with Barack Obama and shootings such as the recent attack in Orlando. That prompted the Post’s editor, Marty Baron, to say Trump had made “nothing less than a repudiation of the role of a free and independent press”.

In a statement, Trump’s campaign said the Post had “no journalistic integrity” and its staff “write falsely about Mr Trump”.

“Mr Trump does not mind a bad story, but it has to be honest,” a spokesperson insisted about that decision.

Politico, Univision, the Huffington Post, the Daily Beast and the Des Moines Register have also been explicitly banned or had reporters ejected from campaign events.

The candidate frequently derides newspapers and singles out reporters by name. He spent much of a May press conference insulting members of the press, calling one reporter a “sleaze” and another “a real beauty”.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A Mexican flag on display 100m from the entrance to Trump International Golf Course in Aberdeen. Photograph: Murdo Macleod/The Guardian

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Though he allows the New York Times and CNN to trail him, he often calls the paper “totally dishonest” and accuses the network of bias in favor of his presumptive Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton. This week the cable news network hired Trump’s former campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, as a political commentator.

Lewandowski was fired by Trump only days earlier, as the campaign reached a new low in funding and the polls. The businessman defended Lewandowski earlier this year when the aide was caught on video roughly grabbing a reporter at a campaign event. Florida police charged him with battery but prosecutors declined to pursue the case.

On Saturday a helicopter brought Trump to his Aberdeen golf club, where protesters raised Mexican flags on the outskirts of the property. Reporters who were allowed to follow the candidate did so in tractors as he drove around on a golf cart.

Trump spoke briefly to the press, saying he planned to have dinner with Rupert Murdoch, the conservative media billionaire who owns the Wall Street Journal, Fox News and several UK papers.