Three generations of one family were sitting in the sunshine in Edinburgh’s Meadows park, just south of the city centre, as guitar chords floated across from the protest stage and a police helicopter whirled overhead.
It had been several hours since close to 10,000 marchers streamed into the park after completing their route from the Holyrood parliament and past the US consulate, but the area was still bustling with activity as families ate packed lunches, strangers compared handmade placards, and ears remained half-open to the speeches from the main stage passionately condemning the gamut of Donald Trump’s policies.
“It’s good to be able to explain to my three-year-old what we’re doing here,” said Sophie Orton, 34. “I’ve said it’s about a man who doesn’t share, and now she’s very keen to tell me that she always shares her toys. He’s just a ridiculous man: his racism, his sexism. As a woman, it felt particularly important to come.”
Her father-in-law, Peter Woolverton, 71, had first protested against Trump after he was elected in 2016. “Putting children in cages was the last straw for me,” he said. “But it’s very much a family atmosphere here. It’s good that we can make a point peacefully.”
Across the park, past wobbling toddlers and wagging dogs, a similar story emerged as Scots, many of whom were new to political demonstrations, enjoyed a buoyant atmosphere with serious undertones, appreciating the opportunity to stand in solidarity with like-minded people across the UK and the world.
I have arrived in Scotland and will be at Trump Turnberry for two days of meetings, calls and hopefully, some golf - my primary form of exercise! The weather is beautiful, and this place is incredible! Tomorrow I go to Helsinki for a Monday meeting with Vladimir Putin.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 14, 2018
First time protester, 31-year-old Kerrae Kerr, sat cross-legged on the grass with a hand-painted placard critiquing Trump’s lack of climate change policy across her knees. “I really wanted to make my voice heard. The thing for me was [when Trump pulled out of] the Paris climate agreement. He’s done so much since, but I didn’t want it to be forgotten, which is why I made my placard.”
Other slogans on signs in the march included: “Ya radge orange bampot!” and “With great power comes great responsibility.”
On the other side of the country, as the carnival of resistance in the Meadows was in full swing, Trump emerged on to the golf course of his Turnberry resort, where he is spending the weekend before flying to Helsinki for a meeting with Vladimir Putin on Monday.
Spotted just before 2pm, the US president waved to a gathering of about 50 protesters standing behind the police cordon on the beach, to be met with booing and chants of “no Trump, no racist USA”.
Trump tweeted on Saturday morning that he was planning “two days of meetings, calls and hopefully, some golf – my primary form of exercise!” He added: “The weather is beautiful, and this place is incredible!”
Trump is expected to spend the rest of the weekend at the resort, which he bought in 2014, after a controversial first visit to the UK since taking office marked by his own contradictory pronouncements as well as unprecedented protests.
The UK government’s Scottish secretary, David Mundell, had briefly greeted Trump as he and his wife, Melania, disembarked from Air Force One at Prestwick airport near Glasgow on Friday evening. No members of the Scottish government were present.
Trump had not requested a meeting with the first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, an outspoken critic of his policies who, according to a former staffer, the US president “totally hates”. Instead, Sturgeon spent Saturday in Glasgow leading an LGBT Pride march.
At a rally in Glasgow on Friday evening, more than 2,000 protesters had gathered as Scotland’s political parties set aside their constitutional differences to present a united opposition to Trump’s presence.
Meanwhile, police inquiries are ongoing to trace a paragliding Greenpeace protester who broke through the no-fly zone surrounding Turnberry on Friday evening, to fly past the US president as he entered the Scottish hotel.
Despite a £5m security operation to keep protesters away from the presidential party, the paraglider flew past police snipers and in front of the hotel, trailing a banner reading “Trump: well below par #resist”.
Back in the Meadows, the six-metre Trump Baby balloon transported from London overnight was straining against its tethers in the strong breeze. The activist Leo Murray had originally hoped to fly the balloon, which depicts Trump as an angry baby wearing a nappy, at Turnberry, but Police Scotland denied permission on security grounds.
Murray said: “People in Scotland have been so enthusiastic. I’ve been in activism all my life but this has crystallised something in the public mood. It will be the defining image of this disastrous visit.”
He added that Trump Baby was now planning a world tour, starting in Australia.
