Scotland's first minister repeated the current coronavirus lockdown rules as she addressed reports that the US president plans to swerve Joe Biden's inauguration by going on a transatlantic golfing trip.
ADVERTISEMENTNicola Sturgeon has warned Donald Trump that he should not be travelling to Scotland to play golf as a way to swerve Joe Biden's inauguration.
The Scottish first minister, who has addressed reports on the US president's agenda, said she "expects" Trump's priority to be conceding the presidency - rather than a transatlantic trip.
"I've no idea what Donald Trump's plans are," Sturgeon said on Tuesday. "I hope and expect that - as everybody expects, not everybody necessarily will hope - that the travel plan immediately that he has is to exit the White House."
The speculation comes after a recent report in the Sunday Post newspaper said Glasgow's Prestwick airport had been briefed to expect a US military aircraft arriving on January 19. The inauguration of President-elect Biden is on January 20.
Trump has golf resorts in both Ayrshire and Aberdeenshire - and, coupled with his repeated refusals to accept he lost the November election, it is thought he could be planning a getaway to avoid facing Biden's big day.
Scotland, however, has just begun another lockdown to try and control the new variant of COVID-19. Scheduled to extend across the entirety of January, this has scuppered travel plans for many.
"We are not allowing people to come into Scotland without an essential purpose right now, and that would apply to [Trump], just as it applies to anybody else," Sturgeon noted.
"Coming to play golf is not what I would consider to be an essential purpose," she added, despite it being Scotland's national sport with a history stretching back centuries.