ON one side, penned in by crush barriers and forever glancing at their their phones to check the Brexit latest, were the international media. There was barely room to lift a camera lens without hitting someone. Sardine tins have been known to have more generous spacing.

On the other side, untethered, stood expectant ranks of hotel and ground staff, many of them wearing bright red baseball caps bearing the words, ‘Made Turnberry Great Again’. All that the two groups had in common was that they were keen to hear the sound of an approaching helicopter.

Finally, at 9.08am, it appeared on the horizon, describing a wide circle before settling down on the helipad. Its occupants clambered out. Two pipers played as the staffers cheered and applauded. Still and TV cameras recorded the frenzy, and, seized by the moment, reporters yelled “Donald! Donald!”

The man who might well be the next leader of the free world took it all in his stride. Donald Trump, wearing a white baseball cap that read, ‘Make America Great Again’, answered a few questions - it was a “great thing” that the people of the UK had "taken back their country" in voting to leave the EU - before disappearing into the Trump Turnberry hotel.

Glasgow Times:

Trump was here for its official opening after a £200 million revamp. All the leaders of the main Scottish political parties had, however, declined invitations to attend, put off by some of The Donald’s more incendiary public statements.

READ MORE: RECAP on Donald Trump's visit to Scotland

Midday was beckoning when we next saw Trump. Flanked by three of his childen - Eric, Don jnr and Ivanka - he addressed a media gathering, some 300 strong, on the ninth hole of the Ailsa course. Just as he was about to speak, comedian Lee Nelson, clutching some golf balls emblazoned with the swastika, interrupted proceedings. “Get him out,” said Trump, flatly. Burly security staff quickly obliged.

Trump said Turnberry was going to be “one of the great, great resorts of the world.” The reviews of the course so far had been phenomenal. “Even people that truly hate me are saying it’s the best they’ve ever seen. When they hate you and they give it a ten, that means you did a good job.”

Glasgow Times:

The media questions came thick and fast. Was there a parallel between the Brexit vote, people rising up against the status quo, and what might be happening in America?

READ MORE: RECAP on Donald Trump's visit to Scotland

“People want to take their country back,” he said. “They want to have independence, in a sense. You see it all over Europe. You’re gonna have many other cases [of countries] where they want to take their borders back, they want to take their monetary back … they want to be able to have a country again.

“I think it’s happening in the United States, it’s happening by the fact that I’ve done so well in the polls. You look at the recent polling, you look at the swing states and you see how I’m doing, and I haven’t even started my campaign yet, essentially.”

READ MORE: RECAP on Donald Trump's visit to Scotland

Ever the astute businessman, he said that if the pound went down, the markets were going to do more business. “When the pound goes down, ore people are coming to Turnberry, frankly…” he added.

Returning to the subject later, he said President Obama may have influenced the Brexit poll - but not in the way he expected - by urging Britons to stay within Europe. If he hadn’t said that, Trump declared, the result might have been different. As for Obama’s statement that Britain would move to the back of the line in any US trade deal if it quit the EU, Trump was insistent: “That wouldn’t happen with me - they will always be at the front of the line.”

There were several other digs at Obama and Hillary Clinton. He added that he was raising a lot of money for the Republican party. Small donors had been particularly active.

He expressed his love of the “amazing” people of Scotland. Did he think they would go through another independence referendum? “It was a very, very close vote,” he said. He was here last time, “and it was a nasty period, and I can’t imagine they’d go through that again. But the people of Scotland may speak differently.”

READ MORE: RECAP on Donald Trump's visit to Scotland

We learned that he loves campaigning, that he hates phoning people and asking them to donate to his campaign - “I’m an honest politician, probably one of the few.” In terms of his business interests, if he won in November, he would “probably put everything in a blind trust,” to be run by his children and senior executives.

There was an illuminating next line: “The importance of the opportunity that I may be given is so important, and so massive, making great trade deals with China, and with you folks, by the way … The numbers are so incredible, I wouldn’t even be thinking about the business. I mean, who cares?”

At length, the press conference drew to a close. The last we saw of the man who would be king was across the way, as he inspected the Lighthouse part of Turnberry, his white baseball cap still visible from a few hundred yards away.