Former President Trump has shown himself to be a supporter of “Brexit,” meaning the exit of the United Kingdom from the European Union, which took awhile to go through but has since been completed. In 2016, Trump even characterized himself at one point as “Mr. Brexit,” which fits, of course, with his general tendency towards nationalism. The problem for Trump is that Brexit has made doing business in the U.K. more difficult for the Trump company. As reported by The Daily Beast, a financial disclosure from a Scottish arm of the Trump business said that Brexit “impacted our business as supply chains have been impacted by availability of drivers and staff, reducing deliveries and availability of certain product lines.”
Trump has two golf resorts in Scotland — which have been the subject of scrutiny as certain concerned observers have tried to get governing authorities to compel Trump to reveal the sources of financing for the properties. Unfortunately, that effort recently ran aground when a Scottish judge ruled against interests who’d brought a case attempting to corner authorities into going after Trump. As for the impact from Brexit on Trump’s business, the Turnberry golf resort’s prices have “increased from additional freight and import duty charges” according to the cited document, and that filing adds as follows:
‘Staff availability has been a challenge from a combination of wage inflation with retail and logistics sectors increasing wages to attract staff due to increased business levels… [T]he staffing pool has been reduced with lack of access to European staff for businesses in general resulting in greater demand for individuals previously available to the resort.’
Of course, these consequences of Brexit — which essentially amount to new hurdles in getting people and goods across the border — were predictable. And yet, that didn’t stop Trump from pushing ahead with his support for the maneuver. In the States, Trump’s business operations remain under scrutiny from authorities in New York, who are investigating issues like whether the Trump company essentially fraudulently adjusted valuations of its assets in hopes of obtaining financial kickbacks like favorable loan terms and tax breaks. Valuations that the company gave to potential lenders could be wildly different from those provided to tax authorities — and a higher valuation for lenders would make the business look better off, while a lower one for authorities could bring down tax bills.
