Donald Trump’s Scottish Roots: A Journey to His Mother’s Homeland, the Isle of Lewis

In the windswept expanse of Scotland’s Outer Hebrides, nestled some 40 miles off its northwest coast, Lews Castle echoes with centuries-old Gaelic ballads that resonate with tales of homesickness and loss. This historic edifice serves as a poignant reminder of the Isle of Lewis’ rich emigration history, with generations departing for opportunities abroad, including the family of Malcolm MacLeod, a local sub-postmaster whose youngest daughter became the mother of former U.S. President Donald Trump.

For centuries, residents bid adieu to departing ships from docks beneath the castle, their handkerchiefs fluttering in the wind as they watched loved ones embark on transatlantic voyages. Emigration was a prevalent phenomenon during this era, with numerous families seeking better prospects abroad. The Trump family is among those whose roots can be traced back centuries on the Isle of Lewis.

President Trump’s visit to the United Kingdom next week, hosted by King Charles III at Windsor Castle, will also bring him closer to his mother’s homeland. Born Mary Anne MacLeod in 1912, she was a native Gaelic speaker who learned English as her second language and is an example of the family-based migration phenomenon—often derided by American immigration hardliners as “chain migration”—that her son’s administration has sought to restrict.

Reaching the Isle of Lewis is no easy feat, even in the age of modern air travel. During NPR’s visit in August, a small commercial flight from Glasgow was forced to circle the island due to a Scottish sea fog, or haar, that threatened our journey. Only one flight dared attempt a landing on that day.

The Isle of Lewis presents a striking landscape, characterized by sparse forests, farmland, and peat bogs, intersected by jagged ravines and lined with pristine white sand beaches that meet the frigid turquoise waters of the North Atlantic. To the north, one can glimpse the Norwegian Sea, heading towards the Arctic. This remote island is more accustomed to people departing than arriving.

Local culture is deeply ingrained with farewells, according to Seonaid McDonald, an archivist who helped curate an exhibition at Lews Castle about emigration from the island. “From the late 18th century, people began leaving in larger numbers,” she explains. “There was also a severe potato famine here as well as in Ireland in the 1840s.” Most emigrants headed to Canada or the U.S., rather than mainland Scotland, she adds.

Emotion chokes in her voice as she points to a museum display featuring black and white photographs of islanders waving goodbye from the dock to their loved ones on departing ships. “The people who left were very poor,” she says. “They might be [abroad] for decades before they could return to visit—by which time, their parents would have died.”

In modern times, the Isle of Lewis’ residents harbor a deep empathy for those compelled to flee their homelands due to reasons such as poverty, war, or oppression. This sentiment is shared by Torcuil Crichton, a member of the center-left ruling Labour Party who represents the Outer Hebrides in the U.K. Parliament. It’s the country’s smallest constituency. Crichton himself hails from Tong, the biggest town on the Isle of Lewis and in the entire Outer Hebrides chain.

Mary Anne MacLeod grew up in a cluster of houses in Tong, known locally as “the white house.” This was in stark contrast to the traditional thatched-roof dwellings, or “blackhouses,” that housed both people and livestock. The name derives from the darkened interior walls caused by burning peat. MacLeod’s father, Malcolm, ran a post office out of an annex on their modern house.

Exposure to the outside world through her father’s work may have piqued Mary Anne’s curiosity about travel, according to Crichton. Her prospects on the island were limited—there was little work for women besides gutting herring—and many eligible bachelors had perished or been injured in World War I. Hundreds died in a mass drowning incident shortly after the war ended.

In the mid-1920s, Mary Anne MacLeod followed her older sisters to New York City. She may have worked initially as a maid or nanny, as many immigrant women did during that era, according to Calum Angus Mackay, who produced a Gaelic television documentary about MacLeod based on letters she wrote to a lifelong pen pal in Dundee, on the Scottish mainland.

“It is primarily a rags-to-riches story!” Mackay says. “Mary Anne basically left with a bag under her arm and very little money.” In 1929, when the U.S. stock market crashed, she returned to Scotland. But by then, she had met Fred Trump—a real estate developer whom she married in 1936.

After becoming Mrs. Fred Trump, MacLeod’s photographs showed a woman transformed, according to Crichton, who also reviewed her pen pal correspondence and collaborated with Mackay on the Gaelic documentary. “There’s one [photo], on the steps of an upstate New York swimming pool, where she’s wearing a bathing costume, her hair is now dyed blonde, and she looks like she’s walked out of the pages of The Great Gatsby or a Hollywood movie,” he says. “It’s the story of the old world and the new world, and really it’s the story of 20th-century America.”

The MacLeod clan can be traced back to medieval times on the Isle of Lewis. Their signature tartan plaid features yellow and black stripes. A volunteer at the Stornoway Historical Society explains that she didn’t need to change her name when she got married—her maiden and married names were both MacLeod.

In high school, students were organized alphabetically, with the M’s grouping together due to the high prevalence of McDonalds, McKenzies, and MacLeods sharing the same surname. Anna Tucker, another volunteer at the Stornoway Historical Society, shares that her maiden name was MacLeod, as was her mother’s. Both of her grandfathers were named Angus MacLeod, she says.

The Isle of Lewis welcomes hundreds of visitors from the U.S. and Canada each year in search of their ancestors. However, it can be challenging to determine which branch of the MacLeod family they belong to due to the numerous shared names. In the hamlet of Gress, the closest burial place to where Trump’s mother grew up, more than half of the headstones bear the MacLeod name.

Donald Trump visited his mother’s childhood home at least once as a child. In 2008, he returned with his oldest sister Maryanne and spent just 97 seconds inside the house, according to media reports from that time. He has since made numerous visits to Scotland but never again to his mother’s homeland. During his upcoming visit to the U.K., President Trump is expected to stay in England, visiting Windsor Castle and Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s country retreat Chequers, outside London.

Crichton extended an invitation to the Isle of Lewis to the U.S. president during Trump’s reelection last winter, inviting him back for a visit that would allow him to experience his mother’s story and the resilient spirit that has shaped America throughout its history. However, Crichton doubts that the U.S. president will take up the offer, as acknowledging his mother’s migration story may contradict some of his own policies and beliefs. Mary Anne MacLeod passed away in the summer of 2000 without witnessing her son ascend to the White House. But at Trump’s first inauguration in 2017, he swore the oath of office on a Bible from the Isle of Lewis—a poignant reminder of his roots and the journey that led him to become the leader of one of the world’s most powerful nations.