Guests left stunned as Donald Trump personally redecorated Turnberry resort

Donald Trump and his adult son embarked on a late-night redecorating spree at his flagship Scottish property, hanging a series of pictures and photographs as guests at the resort “stopped and stared”.

The US president and his second son, Eric, spent hours personally selecting and hanging framed pictures at his Turnberry property.

Mr Trump was like a “kid at Christmas” after deciding to turn his hand to interior decoration while visiting the South Ayrshire hotel and golf resort, according to those present.

After deciding to start hanging the pictures at around 11pm one evening, he and Eric busied themselves with the task until around 1am the following morning.

Donald Trump at his Turnberry hotel and golf resort in South Ayrshire. Picture: John Devlin

However, Mr Trump himself avoided any heavy lifting, instead “dictating” to Eric and another Trump Organisation executive, George Sorial, where the artworks should be positioned.

While the two men held the “massive picture frames” against the walls of Turnberry, Mr Trump stood back and examined them “from every angle” to ensure they were straight and positioned to his liking.

The account of Mr Trump’s unlikely nocturnal activities is detailed in a new book co-authored by Mr Sorial, an executive vice-president and chief compliance counsel at the Trump Organisation, and Damian Bates, a former editor of Scotland’s Press & Journal newspaper turned public affairs executive and lobbyist.

The Real Deal: My Decade Fighting Battles and Winning Wars with Trump purports to offer an insider’s account of life inside the Trump Organisation. Mr Sorial, whose mother hails from the Lewis village of Bragar, describes his boss as a “complicated, brilliant man, a man of contradictions”.

But it is some of the personal details regarding Mr Trump’s tastes and behaviour that is likely to draw the most attention when the book is published next month. Excerpts seen by The Scotsman see Mr Sorial reflect on Mr Trump’s eating habits, noting his “love” of hot dogs and Diet Coke, and how he ate meatloaf while working at his desk.

Mr Sorial also notes how Mr Trump “can angrily insult someone and consider it water under the bridge the next day,” but stresses his “famous tirades” are “always aimed at someone doing something he’s sure his customers won’t like”.

Elsewhere, Mr Sorial addresses the question of Mr Trump’s finances, without offering much in the way of answers.

“How much is he worth?” he asks. “Well, to be frank, I have absolutely no idea and even less interest in finding out.”

The book includes a lengthy section about Mr Trump’s businesses in Scotland, but the chapter in question – entitled To the Land of My Ancestors –is being kept under wraps ahead of its publication next month.

Mr Bates, who in 2013 married Sarah Malone, the executive vice-president of Trump International Golf Links in Aberdeenshire, has been promoting the book on social media.

He tweeted an endorsement from Newt Gingrich, a Trump supporter and former Republican Speaker of the US House of Representatives, who praised the upcoming publication as “an important educational book about our president”.