TRUMP

WHAT TRUMP STANDS FOR 71
concluded that “the economic benefits of the project outweighed the
damaging environmental effects.” 270 In return, Trump “promised to
set up and fund an expert group to oversee compliance with a number
of legal conditions designed to protect wildlife.” 271 Trump’s representatives
failed to attend meetings of the oversight group, and it was
eventually dissolved amid controversy. 272
Birds were not the only residents of the dunes whose habitats were
threatened by Trump’s golf course. Residents of Balmedie who lived
near the course soon found themselves at war with Trump, who
resolved to make their living situations intolerable. Michael Forbes,
a farmer and salmon fisherman who lived near the course, had spent
forty years living by the dunes, wandering down to the water to fish.
The arrival of Trump’s course obliterated Forbes’ water access, with
Trump’s private security forces dealing strictly with any attempt to
pass through the Trump land. Worse, for Forbes, Trump felt that
Forbes’ nearby farm was an eyesore, and wished to force him out.
“I want to get rid of that house,” Trump said. “We’re trying to build
the greatest course in the world; this house is ugly… Nobody has a
problem with it… I guess maybe the people that live in the houses
[do].” 273 In interviews, Trump called Forbes’ home a “pigsty,” “slumlike,”
and “disgusting.” 274 Trump had his workers install high trees in order to
conceal Michael Forbes’ home from the view of the golfers, as well as
building an enormous wall of earth around Forbes’ home. (Forbes has
noted that Trump seems to have a fondness for wall-building.) Forbes
and other residents, “repeatedly lost power and water supplies during
the development of Trump’s golf course.” Local residents Susan Munro
and David Milne also reported being blocked in. As Anthony Baxter
documents, “At the crack of dawn one morning in 2010, the billionaire’s
bulldozers sprang into action and began dumping thousands of
tons of earth around the [Munro and Milne] homes… after the tycoon
had branded their houses ugly.” 275 The construction of the course ended
up contaminating the Forbes family’s water supply: