THE Trump organisation yesterday strenuously denied it was scaling back on developments – including its luxury golf resort in north-east Scotland – because of the credit crunch and a series of legal and financial battles.
It dismissed reports of the billionaire's fortune dwindling as "speculation", and said none of the issues facing the company would affect its plans for a £1 billion golf development at Menie Estate, Aberdeenshire.
The project team for Menie –
which got the go-ahead after the Scottish Government "called in" the plans – will be announced this week and the organisation says it remains committed to the project.
Mr Trump is said to be worth about $3 billion (£2 billion) but a report yesterday claimed his organisation was under pressure from work stalling on a skyscraper plan in Dubai and apartments in Philadelphia.
It is also claimed Trump Entertainment Resorts (TER) missed a $53.1 million interest payment relating to casinos in Atlantic City, while Trump was being sued by Deutsche Bank over a development in Chicago.
The claim has led to rumours about the health of Trump's finances and speculation about whether the Aberdeenshire resort will progress.
However, George Sorial, the manager of the Menie project, said TER was a publicly traded company in which Trump had a minority position representing less than 1 per cent of his overall net worth. He had nothing to do with the management.
He told The Scotsman from New York: "There has been a heightened sense of some problems within the Trump Organisation which would prevent us from doing the job in Scotland.
"It's simply not true at all. Obviously, like any developer now, we are facing challenging times, but that is not unique to the Trump Organisation.
"At the same time, there are significant opportunities in the market and we have taken advantage of that by making a number of key acquisitions."
These include a troubled golf course project near Manhattan which Trump has taken over.
He added: "As far as real estate development globally goes, did we have a bad year? Yes. Will next year be bad? Yes, it will be challenging. But bad times are usually followed by periods of aggressive growth, so I think we are nicely positioned in Aberdeen and we are in good shape to get through it.
"As an organisation we have done well and one project has nothing really to do with another. The news for Scotland is good. This week we will announce our entire development team. We have been spending money consistently in the North-east over the last three years and continue to do so."
He said Menie House and Menie Park Lodge were being refurbished, while architects had been commissioned to devise the masterplan and design the clubhouse.
"It should go a long way towards demonstrating that we are not playing games here. We are ramping up now to get this project started.
"If you speak to anyone, we are not doing anything to show signs of slowing down. We want to start this project.
"People can speculate, but when we have equipment rolling on to the site and work is starting, critics will be silenced.
"The proof will be if we get on with the job and I don't think we have done anything but indicate we are extremely committed to Aberdeen.
"You don't spend tens of millions of pounds on a site that you don't intend developing."
He said the dollar had recently gained on the pound, while the price of oil and raw materials had dropped, all of which helped developers.
The full article contains 607 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
