A complaint by Trump International Golf Club against The Scotsman has been dismissed by the press watchdog.
Or as The Scotsman said today: “The Scotsman defeats Donald Trump and co over dirty kitchen complaint.”
The resort went to the Independent Press Standards Organisation stating that the newspaper had breached the accuracy clause of the Editors’ Code of Practice when it reported that it had failed a food hygiene test.
The specific articles were headlined “Trump’s first hotel in Scotland fails food hygiene test”, and”Make Trump resort restaurant great again”, both of which were published on 16 September 2023.
The first article reported on an “official control intervention” at Trump International Golf Links, stating that:
“Donald Trump’s inaugural property in Scotland has been told to make a raft of improvements by environmental health officials after an array of cleanliness and food safety issues saw the high-end hotel and golf resort fail to achieve a pass grade under a national food hygiene scheme”.
It added: “following a Freedom of Information request, The Scotsman obtained reports and correspondence detailing why the property failed to achieve a pass. Mr Trump’s hotel was first served with an ‘improvement notice’ following an official inspection in March last year. Aberdeenshire Council confirmed to The Scotsman this week that its status remains unchanged.”
It further detailed some of the issues, such as “[d]irty chopping boards and appliances, food handlers failing to wash their hands properly, and sausage meat found to be nearly three months out of date”.
It ended:
“The Scotsman asked the Trump organisation if it had acted on the improvements specified by inspectors, and whether Mr Trump was aware his property had failed to pass the food hygiene inspection before declaring it one of the world’s greatest hotels. The company did not respond.”
The second article which appeared in the same edition of the paper was a lead column and commented on the inspection.
It said it’s “probably fair to say that the failure of the Trump International Golf Links in Aberdeenshire to pass a food hygiene inspection is among the former US President’s lesser problems right now, given his current legal troubles. But it is, at least, rather ironic that the self-confessed germophobe’s business should have been ordered to make improvements by environmental health officials over cleanliness and food safety issues.” The article concluded: “As for the other diners, some might say one would have already needed to have a strong stomach to put money into the pockets of a man as morally repugnant as he is.”
Both articles were also online under different headlines.
Trump International Golf Club Scotland issued the complaint stating that they were “inaccurate and misleading” and had “created a false narrative that the resort was currently operating an unsafe environment for consumers and that the problems were ongoing.”
It also said that it was “inaccurate to report that the resort had ‘failed’ anything.” It argued that during an unannounced inspection in March 2022, “some improvements were identified.” These were immediately resolved and the council did not return to complete a follow-up check.
The resort said there was a second interaction with the council in February 2023 “where minor issues were raised” and the council returned less than two weeks later and confirmed that the issues had been addressed which led to the receipt of a ‘pass’ certificate in March 2023.
As a result, it argued that there “had been no failure” and if there had been one it “would have serious connotations for a hospitality outlet, which could lead to financial loss or its immediate closure.”
A further complaint was that the print article showed a photo of MacLeod House, which is the hotel at the Trump International golf resort.
The club added that the first article inaccurately claimed the publication had contacted Aberdeenshire Council for comment, but “that having spoken to the council themselves, which disputed that it had been contacted for comment. The complainant speculated that the publication had taken information regarding the status of the resort from the council’s website, which the council had since confirmed was inaccurate.”
It also said it had “not received any approach or questions from the newspaper, and therefore did not have an opportunity to set the record straight prior to publication.”
Before complaining to IPSO, it contacted The Scotsman and requested the removal of the online articles and a prominent written correction and apology to be published online and in print. It was offered a right of reply and on 17th September amended the online version of the first article “under complaint” to include part of a statement from the resort.
The full statement issued at the time was:
“TRUMP INTERNATIONAL CATEGORICALLY REJECTS INCORRECT CLAIMS OVER FOOD HYGIENE
“Following an article published by The Scotsman today asserting that the Trump International, Scotland, resort in Aberdeenshire had failed a food hygiene inspection, [a named individual], Executive Vice President, issued the following statement: “We categorically reject the incorrect claims made in “The Scotsman newspaper today. This resort has never failed a food hygiene inspection and has a Pass Certificate dated March 2023. Aberdeenshire Council has reaffirmed this today and stated that their website does not reflect our status.
“As all hospitality businesses know, it is routine for all food hygiene inspectors to make improvement recommendations, and such recommendations are always implemented.
“Sadly, this false media coverage has created a hugely misleading and inaccurate impression of the high standards that are maintained at our resort in Aberdeenshire. We’ve instructed our lawyers to take action on this report and anyone who repeats it.”
The amended article read:
“The Scotsman asked the Trump Organisation if it had acted on the improvements specified by inspectors, and whether Mr Trump was aware his property had failed to pass the food hygiene inspection before declaring it one of the world’s greatest hotels. The company did not respond before publication. However, on Saturday afternoon, [a named individual], Executive Vice President, Trump International Scotland, claimed they ‘categorically reject’ the report and suggested a Pass Certificate had now been achieved. The statement read: ‘This resort has never failed a food hygiene inspection and has a Pass Certificate dated March 2023. ‘As all hospitality businesses know, it is routine for all food hygiene inspectors to make improvement recommendations, and such recommendations are always implemented.’”
On 29th September, The Scotsman amended the article headline to “Exclusive: Donald Trump’s resort rapped by hygiene inspectors over food safety issues” and amended the second article’s headline to “Trump International Golf Links’ customers unlikely to be deterred by hygiene inspection rap – Scotsman comment”.
It inserted the following text at the beginning of the articles: “*This story has been updated following new information from Aberdeenshire Council confirming improvements have now been made and the resort has now passed an inspection – see footnote”. The footnote said:
“Prior to publication The Scotsman confirmed with Aberdeenshire Council that improvements were still required following the inspection on February 24 this year. We were told by Council officials that they were. It has now emerged that a revisit was made on March 9 this year where all food safety improvements were found to have been met and a pass certificate issued. The incorrect information was supplied to The Scotsman because the council’s systems were not updated properly, for which they have apologised to The Scotsman. We are happy to clarify this.”
It also published a print correction on 30th September.
However, the complainant said the amends to the article “were themselves inaccurate” and “the clarification suggested the resort had ‘now passed an inspection’ it had initially failed – it maintained that the resort had not failed the first inspection.”
In reply, The Scotsman said it did not accept a breach of the Code. It said the article had reported on a kitchen at the Trump International Golf Club which had failed to meet the minimum legal standards in an announced visit from environmental health officials from Aberdeenshire Council, under Food Standards Scotland’s Food Hygiene Information System initiative.
The publication added it had taken care over the accuracy of the articles in various ways. It had obtained a series of documents through an FOI request, contacted the council to fact-check information, and had given the complainant an opportunity to respond to questions prior to publication.
It continued to state that the reporter had contacted The Trump Organisation through an email address they had previously received a response from, but in this instance received no reply.
It also asked for a response to the FOI which had shown the kitchen had failed to meet its legal requirements under a national food hygiene information scheme and set out the various issues.
During the investigation, the publication provided the report from the council dated 24 February 2022, which had evaluated the premises as “improvement required”, as well as a letter to the complainant confirming this rating.
The Scotsman obtained information from the council’s website regarding the resort’s status. Following this, the publication said it approached the council to fact-check this information and the council had confirmed the complainant still had an “improvement required” notice against it following an inspection.
The publisher said that once is had been contacted by the resort, it “immediately incorporated the complainant’s statement into the first online article.”
It also explained why it stated that the resort had “failed” the food hygiene test: it had detailed the issues in the kitchen which meant it was failing to meet the legal minimums required of it. It explained that adequate food safety and hygiene practices were required by law, and as the FOI documentation noted, some improvements were required immediately. It said the kitchen did not pass the test, despite having prior warning and being closed to days before, during which it could have been cleaned. Further, the publication said the senior environmental health officer noted his disappointment at the cleaning issues. The publication said this was the definition of a failure to pass an inspection.
IPSO stated that the article had set out basis for the term “failed”: it explained that the resort had not met the requirements to achieve a “pass” status and therefore could be characterised as having “failed”. It did not consider there was a breach of Clause 1 on this point.
The committee also found that “the publication had gone to some lengths to ensure the accuracy over the information and any potential update to the inspection’s findings: it had made an FOI request regarding the inspection; checked the council’s website; contacted the council to verify whether the information on its website was correct in regard to the inspection status; and had also attempted to contact the complainant with several questions. The council had confirmed that the website was accurate and the status, which was not a pass, remained ‘unchanged’. None of these steps provided information which indicated that the claim was inaccurate. For these reasons, the Committee was satisfied that the publication had taken sufficient care over the accuracy of the article.”
As a result it found no breach of Clause 1 (accuracy).
Referring to the the location of the inspection, the complainant said this had occurred at the golf clubhouse, not the hotel.
“The Committee noted that the first article had referred to location of the ‘fail’ in several ways: “Trump’s first hotel in Scotland”, “Donald Trump’s inaugural property in Scotland”, “high-end hotel and golf resort”, “Mr Trump’s hotel”. The second article referred to it as “Trump resort restaurant” and “Trump International Golf Links in Aberdeenshire”.
“While the Committee acknowledged that the improvements notice was issued in relation to the golf clubhouse, it did not consider it was significantly inaccurate to refer to the location as the hotel or illustrate the article with a picture of the hotel as the resort was comprised of the hotel and golf clubhouse. For this reason, the Committee did not identify a breach of Clause 1 on this point.”
The Code Committee agreed that a correction was required and considered whether the publication had corrected the inaccuracies in the first article with due prominence and promptness.
“The Committee noted that on 17 September, the day after the complainant had contacted it, the publication had amended the first article to include part of the complainant’s statement. Following further correspondence from the complainant on 28 September, the publication sought to verify the contradictory information the council had given it in relation to its current status. The day after receiving confirmation from the council that it had made an error, on 29 September, the publication updated both the headline; amended the articles to state it had been updated following the new information from the council; and published a footnote correction. On 30 September, it published a print clarification on page three, two days after receiving the information. The Committee was satisfied that it was proportionate for the publication to wait until it had verified the complaint’s position with the council before correcting the article. It considered publishing the online and print clarifications one to two days respectively after the council had verified the information to represent due promptness. In terms of prominence, the print correction appeared on page three, earlier in the paper than where first article had originally appeared. Therefore, this was sufficiently prominent.”
In conclusion the complain was not upheld and no action was required.
