President Donald Trump has been forced to admit he doesn’t fully own one of his golf courses to avoid paying legal fees.
The 80-year-old president is involved in a long-running battle with Orbis Business Intelligence, a consultancy founded by Christopher Steele, a former British spy who was behind a salacious but largely debunked dossier that claimed Trump was compromised by Russia for allegedly taking part in “golden showers” with prostitutes in Moscow.
Trump sued Orbis Business Intelligence for damages in 2023, claiming the dossier, published by BuzzFeed in January 2017, breached his data protection rights. London’s High Court of Justice threw out the case in 2024 because Trump did not bring it within the six-year limitation period required for such data cases under U.K. law.
A court then ordered the president to pay Orbis more than £600,000 ($800,000) in legal costs, which has since increased to more than $1 million due to interest.
Trump was named at a hearing in a Scottish court as Orbis attempts to recover the funds from the Trump Turnberry golf resort, the BBC reported.
SLC Turnberry Limited—which owns the course on Scotland’s east coast—is trying to argue the case by disputing Trump’s role as the “ultimate owner,” as the course is held by a trust.
Anthony Scaramucci, who lasted just 11 days as White House communications director during Trump’s first term, said the court battle suggests the president has been “lying” about owning Turnberry Golf Resort.
“Turnberry’s lawyers are arguing he doesn’t. Trump is now being pursued as a ‘debtor’ for the $1 million in legal costs he owes Steele’s company Orbis after losing a case against them in the English courts. How humiliating,” Scaramucci posted on X.
Duncan Hamilton, Orbis’ legal representative in the case, told Ayr Sheriff Court that Trump has been “put in a degree of legal and reputational jeopardy” by SLC Turnberry Limited, as the firm is implying that the president’s previous statements about the golf course were false.
“President Trump has stated emphatically that he owns Turnberry,” Hamilton said.
“He has committed that to federal filings of assets... He has made that clear in a witness statement to the High Court.”
Turnberry’s advocate David Massaro said Turnberry was not claiming the president’s past assertions were false, but that his stake in the resort “ultimately rests in a trust in the U.S., and as they have averred, the president is the beneficiary,” The National reported.
Massaro added that because trustees hold the shares, there is no “sufficient link” to the company.
Trump resigned as director of SLC Turnberry in January 2017, just before he entered the White House for the first time. The BBC reports that Trump has significant control of a company called Golf Recreation Scotland, which has significant control over SLC Turnberry. The president’s son, Eric Trump, is a director of Golf Recreation Scotland.
Another hearing in the case is set to take place at a court in Scotland in November.
