Donald Trump is scheduled to visit his Balmedie golf courses this week, and Milne is planning to enjoy it all from his house next door — the one Trump declared an eyesore and has been trying, futilely, to get demolished for two decades.

“I’m still here and I’m going to sit up here with a beer and watch the circus,” Milne said a few days before the president and his entourage were due to arrive at Trump International Golf Links Aberdeen, one of the two golf clubs he owns in Scotland.....

Trump is planning four days in Scotland, starting Friday evening with three days at Turnberry, his west coast course, followed by an overnight at Balmedie. The stopover in Aberdeenshire will be his first as a sitting president, and it has prompted a lot of security preparations and a bit of head-scratching by local officials — there is no way to minimize a presidential visit, even if it’s just a drop-by at his private club. That the same president will be back in Britain for a full-fledged, red-carpet state visit in two months also doesn’t change anything.

“Are we protecting the president or are we protecting the owner of the golf course?” asked Paul Johnston, a member of the Aberdeenshire Council, who noted the police overtime and closed roads that are inevitable when the world’s most powerful leader comes to town, even if he sleeps in his own 18-room lodge. “It’s a quick trip that is going to cost us a great deal while he’s here.”....

And the promises were eye-popping: Trump pledged to build “the greatest golf course in the world,” a $1.2 billion showplace with a 450-room luxury hotel, 950 resort apartments, 36 golf villas and up to 500 houses.

Two decades later, almost none of it has come to pass. Trump on this visit will cut the ribbon on a second 18-hole course, but there is still no grand hotel, no time shares, no gusher of tax money from a property that has never reported a profit. Trump’s proposal envisioned 6,000 jobs; the most recent public disclosure, from October, lists 84 employees.