A US secret service agent who suffered a stroke during President Trump’s visit to his Turnberry golf resort has died.
The agent, a man with 19 years’ experience in the service, was in Scotland working on presidential protection when he fell ill on Sunday.
He had been receiving “critical care” from medics in Scotland but died on Tuesday morning, surrounded by members of his immediate family.
The US secret service confirmed the death “with great sadness and regret” in a statement and described the man as a “dedicated professional of the highest order”.
It added: “The secret service thanks the medical personnel in Scotland, in addition to the members of the White House Medical Unit and Police Scotland who provided exceptional care and support for a member of our family.”
The service has not released the man’s name to give his family privacy and time to inform others.
President Trump left Turnberry on Sunday after spending four days in the UK. The US government paid more than $77,000 to President Trump’s Scottish golf resort ahead of his stay there for “hotel rooms for VIP visit”, according to federal spending records, indicating that Trump’s official visit to Europe likely generated revenue for his business empire.
Trump caused political havoc during his four-day stay in Britain after giving an interview to the Sun newspaper in which he said May’s Brexit strategy could kill off a US trade deal and declared her rival, former foreign secretary Boris Johnson, would make an excellent prime minister.
Trump flew out of Prestwick Airport to Helsinki, Finland, for talks with Russian president Vladimir Putin on Monday.
The talks led to another crisis for the president, after Trump appeared to give more credence to Putin’s denial of Russian interference in the 2016 election than he gave to his own intelligence services who say Russian involvement had taken place, before Trump backtracked on Tuesday, saying he had “misspoke”.
