Scotland’s Leader Rejects Trump’s Rumored Golf Trip to the Country: That is Not ‘An Essential Purpose’

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President Donald Trump’s rumored Inauguration Day trip to Scotland was rejected by the country’s first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, who noted it goes against Covid-19 safety measures.

While the White House already refused to deny a report that Trump was planning to leave the United States before President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration, Sturgeon reminded them that either way, Scotland is not an option.

This weekend, the Sunday Post reported that Glasgow’s Prestwick Airport was told to expect a Boeing 757 aircraft from the U.S. military on Jan. 19, sparking rumors that the president was planning a trip to Scotland. Trump also owns the nearby Turnberry resort, home to one of his Scottish golf courses.

According to a report by The New York Times, Sturgeon confirmed because of restrictions imposed amid the pandemic, all non-essential travel to Scotland would be prohibited.

“We are not allowing people to come into Scotland,” Sturgeon told reporters in Edinburgh. “And that would apply to him just as it applies to anybody else — and coming in to play golf is not what I would consider to be an essential purpose.”

The first minister established a lockdown on Monday following news that a mutant coronavirus strain was spreading throughout the United Kingdom, which in addition to thwarting travel plans, closed schools and places of worship.