President Donald Trump said he wasn’t in a good mood on Sunday, and it wasn’t because he’d just had a bad round of golf.
During a news conference with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at Trump’s Turnberry resort in Scotland, a reporter told the president he seemed to be in “quite a good mood,” prompting him to reply, “I’m actually not in a good mood.”
Another reporter followed up, “Can I ask why you’re in a bad mood? Was it a bad morning of golf, or why you’re not in a good mood?”
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“No, the golf was beautiful,” Trump said. “Golf can never be bad. Even if you play badly, it’s still good. If you have a bad day on the golf course, it’s OK.”
“I look forward to this meeting,” he added. “We’ve had a hard time with trade with Europe. Very hard time. And I’d like to see it resolved.”
It came amid reports the president has been fuming behind the scenes about his administration’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, which has not dissipated despite his best efforts.
Trump golfed on Saturday and Sunday at his luxury course on Scotland’s West Coast, although video emerged after Sunday’s round which led to accusations that the president had been cheating. He did not receive the warmest of welcomes in the country, his mother’s homeland, with protests taking place throughout the weekend over his presence.
His spirits may have lifted soon after his exchange with the reporter, when he and von der Leyen announced that the U.S. had reached a trade deal with the European bloc.
The trade framework sets a 15 percent baseline tariff on most goods—largely averting an impending trade war—and includes substantial EU commitments to buy U.S. energy and invest in U.S. industries, just ahead of an Aug. 1 tariff deadline.
“We have a deal. We have a trade deal between the two largest economies in the world, and it’s a big deal, it’s a huge deal,” the European leader said of the agreement.
Trump said it was the “biggest of all the deals.”
