When the 1% is faced with the consequences of their own actions, they’re usually left with two options: face the music, or flee the country. President Donald Trump chose the latter. He was among the clouds, mid-flight, when Scotland’s national paper ran. It’s cover read: “CONVICTED US FELON TO ARRIVE IN SCOTLAND: Republican leader, who was found liable for sexual abuse and defamation, will visit golf courses.” At the bottom, a plea to R&A: “Don’t give Trump the 2028 Open!”

The visit to this displeased country was officially deemed a “working visit” by the White House, yet it’s detailed by an itinerary — which, yes — mentions a trade deal, but predominantly involves golf. Saturday, while Trump was driving his son, Eric, and the U.S. ambassador to Britain, Warren Stephens, around in a golf cart — just beyond the borders of the course, the people of Scotland were protesting his presence.

Expected to spend the majority of the trip tucked away in the privacy of his two golf resorts — Trump Turnberry in the west and Trump International a couple hundred miles north — the President shouldn’t be too distracted by all the reminders of his old friend, Jeffrey Epstein, with whom he shared a 15-year friendship. According to Trump, the pair had a falling out in the early 2000s and didn’t find their way back — before Epstein took his life in prison, awaiting trial for a sex trafficking operation involving minors.

Trump’s mother, Mary Anne MacLeod, was born and raised on the Isle of Lewis in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides islands, speaking Scottish Gaelic as her first language — she lived there until immigrating to New York at 18 years old, where she’d marry Trump’s father and have five children.

And while blood is thicker than water, it certainly isn’t thicker than shame.

A relative of the president’s mother, Janet MacLeod-Trotter, participated in demonstrations, sporting a sign which read, “MacLeods against Trump,” claiming he was “misusing his heritage.”

“A lot of Macleods are very upset with the way he’s conducting all sorts of international and national issues,” MacLeod-Trotter told NPR. “He doesn’t do anything to help the people of Lewis, where his mother came from. He just comes over to buy up golf courses and line his own pockets.”

In spite of Trump’s plans to inaugurate his new Aberdeenshire golf course in honor of his late mother, MacLeod-Trotter said the MacLeod family is “ashamed” to see their name associated it.

Another demonstrator, a 58-year-old woman from Alloa, was present with a sign that read, “Release the Epstein Files.” She clarified to The New York Times that her rejection to Trump-related topics are far more wide-ranging than her sign depicts, but the Epstein scandal happens to be his most recent and notable controversy.

“I’m just so horrified by the normalization of cruelty, corruption and mass disinformation,” she told The Times. “This is just one tiny plot of the whole thing.”

As for Trump — he told reporters that, contrary to the Wall Street Journal exclusive, he was actually not briefed on his name appearing in the Epstein case files.

“I’m focused on making deals,” he told reporters before leaving for Scotland on Friday. “I’m not focused on conspiracy theories.”

Beyond the trade deal, the president is presumably writing his golf excursions off as work-related, having long lobbied for Turnberry to host the British Open — something that hasn’t happened since he acquired the course.

The National published a personal request to readers: “Don’t let the 2028 tournament drown in Trump’s brand of divisive politics which pit communities against one another… The answer is clear: The Open Championship must not be handed to Trump Turnberry… Do the right thing.”

Trump responded to this petition by… quoting a golf review. He juxtaposed the article in a Truth Social post on Saturday, quoting the retired golfer, Gary Player, who had ranked Trump’s Turnberry in his “Top Five Greatest Golf Courses.” In this post, the President misspelled the name his golf course shares with its village.