The White House dismissed a report suggesting that President Trump is considering traveling to Scotland the day before President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration.
The Sunday Post, a Scottish newspaper, reported over the weekend, citing anonymous aviation sources, that Glasgow Prestwick Airport had been told to expect a U.S. military Boeing 757 aircraft on Jan. 19.
“There is a booking for an American military version of the Boeing 757 on January 19, the day before the inauguration,” one source said. “That’s one that’s normally used by the Vice-President but often used by the First Lady. Presidential flights tend to get booked far in advance, because of the work that has to be done around it.”
Judd Deere, the deputy White House press secretary, pushed back on the report in a statement to Fox News.
“Anonymous sources who claim to know what the President is or is not considering have no idea,” he said. “When President Trump has an announcement about his plans for Jan. 20. he will let you know.”
First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon urged the president not to travel to Scotland, where Trump has his Turnberry resort, given the country is locked down amid the coronavirus pandemic, and only essential travel is permitted.
“We’re not allowing people to come to Scotland without an essential purpose, and that would apply to him just as it would apply to anybody else,” she said. “Coming to play golf isn’t what I would consider to be an essential purpose.”
In the time since the election was called by media outlets for Biden, there have been a handful of reports about what the president, who hasn’t conceded the race, will do during Biden’s inauguration.
The White House previously shot down a report that Trump is planning a Florida rally potentially to announce his 2024 bid instead of attending the inauguration in an identical statement to the one issued about the Scotland report.
Two months after Election Day, Trump still refuses to concede the contest to Biden and is pinning his hopes on Republicans in Congress and other allies to employ long-shot bids to overturn the result.
The inauguration itself will be a smaller-than-usual event due to crowd limits as a result of the pandemic.
