Daragh Brophy reports from Turnberry, Scotland:
A PROTESTER, BELIEVED to be comedian and prankster Lee Nelson, was ejected from Donald Trump’s Turnberry golf resort in Scotland this morning after throwing a bag full of swastika-emblazoned golf balls towards the mogul.
The presumptive GOP nominee, taking a break from the White House campaign trail to promote his business interests in the country, was just about to begin a speech to mark the reopening of the resort, which is around two hours’ drive down the coast from Glasgow.
The protester, who had been perched in front of a bank of TV cameras for around an hour, unfurled the red, white and black balls from a holdall bag – throwing the carefully choreographed press op into chaos.
“These are the new balls available from the club house – part of the new Trump Turnberry range,” he said, his voice wavering slightly.
He then tried to hand the (presumably) custom designed balls out to club members and reporters.
Lee Nelson (real name Simon Brodkin) later tweeted a video of the incident. The comedian previously hit the headlines after staging a stunt that saw him shower former Fifa boss Sepp Blatter with fake money.
“Get him out,” a calm-looking Trump said from the podium.
Security guards sprang into action and hauled the protester away.
Trump then continued with his speech – the Nazi themed balls strewn all over the grass, at the course’s ninth hole, where the press conference was staged.
After around ten minutes, Trump campaign operatives decided it might be a good idea to start clearing them away – and set about scooping them up with a few of his branded baseball caps.
Trump arrived at the course shortly after 9am this morning, just after David Cameron’s resignation announcement. The press conference took place near the edge of a cliff – but, Nazi-ball incident aside, passed off pretty much as planned.
With reporting by Christine Bohan.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say