A pro-Palestinian activist group has vandalized parts of President Donald Trump’s Turnberry golf resort in Scotland, defacing buildings and damaging greens in a protest against his administration’s support for Israel.
Photos shared by the alleged perpetrators on March 8 show a hotel building spray-painted with red paint. A drone footage posted to Instagram shows the words “Gaza is not 4 sale” written across one of the greens.
Several of the course’s “most prestigious holes” were also dug up in the act of protest, according to Palestine Action, a United Kingdom-based group that claimed responsibility.
In a statement on its website, Palestine Action described the vandalism as a “direct response” to the Trump administration’s policies, which it accused of helping to “ethnically cleanse Gaza.”
The group specifically criticized the United States’ recent weapon shipments to Israel. On March 1, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio invoked emergency authorities to expedite the delivery of nearly $4 billion in military aid, a batch containing 35,529 general-purpose bombs and 4,000 “bunker buster” warheads costing $2.04 billion, as well as $675.7 million in munitions and guidance kits and $295 million for armored bulldozers.
Activists also took issue with an artificial intelligence (AI)-generated video Trump recently shared on his Truth Social account without context. The video appears to be inspired by his previously stated idea of relocating nearly 2 million Palestinians elsewhere to pave the way for turning Gaza into a “Riviera of the Middle East.”
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The video, set to an AI-generated song, shows beachfront hotels replacing rubble, Elon Musk eating a pita, a gold statue of Trump overlooking palm-tree-lined streets, and Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu enjoying drinks in the sun.
The activists said their vandalism was meant to highlight “popular opposition” to Trump’s purported vision for the war-torn enclave.
“Palestine Action rejects Donald Trump’s treatment of Gaza as though it were his property to dispose of as he likes,” the group’s spokesperson stated on its website. “To make that clear, we have shown him that his own property is not safe from acts of resistance. We will continue to take action against US-Israeli colonialism in the Palestinian homeland.”
Scottish authorities confirmed they are investigating the incident.
“Around 4:40 a.m. on Saturday, March 8, 2025, we received a report of damage to the golf course and a premises on Maidens Road, Turnberry,” a spokesperson for Police Scotland said.
The Trump resort condemned the incident as a “childish, criminal act,” adding that the team will ensure it does not disrupt business.
“Turnberry is a national treasure and will continue to be the number one beacon of luxury and excellence in the world of golf,” a resort spokesperson said in a statement to media outlets.
Turnberry is one of 10 courses in rotation to host the British Open, the oldest of the four major championships in men’s golf. The last time it staged the event was in 2009, five years before Trump added the property to his expanding golf empire.
In May 2023, Trump traveled to Aberdeen, Scotland, to break ground on a new 18-hole golf course in honor of his mother, Mary Anne MacLeod, who was born in the Isle of Lewis.
Reuters contributed to this report.
