While President Trump’s golf courses on the British Isles have long served as a nexus for his attempts to enrich himself while in office, a new report from the New York Times details what is perhaps his most brazen effort yet to boost his revenue abroad. In February 2018, the president allegedly pressured the U.S. ambassador to Britain, Robert Wood Johnson IV, to ask the U.K. government to relocate the lucrative British Open tournament to the president’s Turnberry resort in Scotland.
While the ambassador’s deputy Lewis A. Lukens warned Johnson that such a request would be an obvious ethical violation, Johnson reportedly felt pressured to go forward with it, according to three sources familiar with the matter who spoke with the Times. Three weeks after the request, Johnson floated the idea to Scotland’s Secretary of State David Mundell. As is common with State officials who speak out against the president’s requests to foreign players — whether to make money or influence elections — Lukens was forced out of the department months later, after informing higher-ups of the alleged action.
Johnson, the owner of the New York Jets and the billionaire heir of the pharmaceutical giant bearing his name, was awarded the prestigious job after backing Trump in the 2016 election. He had no prior diplomatic experience before his appointment, and in his tony new position, he has reportedly commented on the appearance of female employees, and pushed Lukens out after he made a positive comment in public about President Obama.
