The U.K. is about as fond of Donald Trump as a trip to the dentist. After all, it was just last month that Parliament debated whether or not to straight up ban the bronzed sentient hairpiece from even entering their country. Even though there was no expectation that they would ban him from the U.K., it was still a powerful cultural moment, an airing of grievances most British, in which Trump was described as a “dangerous fool,” a “buffoon,” and a “wazzock” (why don’t we use that term?).
To the Scots, Donald Trump is a liar and a bully.
Donald Trump owns a golf course in northeast Scotland that has become the bane of the existences of those who live near it. The Scotland golf course was one of the culturally-offensive real estate mogul’s business ventures. It promised thousands of jobs, tourism, and a new way to diversify the economy.
Ten years later, these promises have never come to fruition, angering those who live near the course and alienating some of his Scottish supporters.
Trump International Golf Links, an unfortunate name for “the world’s greatest golf course,” has been a source of contention for years. Aside from the standard green fee of £165 ($236.44 USD), the course has been the ire of environmentalists who claim the development “damages valuable wilderness land.” Trump has vehemently denied this, however, instead countering with a claim that the development “has actually protected wildlife and improved the natural habitat,” because resort building is totally known for doing that.
NPR’s Layla Fadel went to Aberdeen to get an idea of how Scots feel about the Donald. She spoke with David Milne, who lives next to the pristine, albeit routinely empty, golf course that now obstructs his view of the ocean. According to Milne:
“He promises the Earth and delivers nothing. As far as that goes, he’s in a good position to be a politician. But as far as the real world goes, no. Do not trust this man with anything.”
Milne also told Fadel about how Trump and his ilk have made life next to the golf course a living hell.
“They have threatened us at a few stages. We’ve had the water lines cut, the power lines cut, the phone lines cut — sometimes accidentally, but not always. He has lied to us. He’s lied about us.”
Milne also stated that Trump tried to use the Scottish version of imminent domain to force him to sell his property.
But why build the golf course in Scotland? According to Trump, his reasoning involved his mother, who was born there. He sought to emphasize his ties to Scotland. Why not? After all, heritage is a source of pride for a lot of people.
But this is Donald Trump, who is about as arrogant an asshole as they come. In December, Trump’s efforts to block the installation of wind turbines off the coast of Aberdeen were rejected by the U.K. Supreme Court. His reasoning for trying to block the turbines? He claimed they would blight the beauty of Scotland, and his golf course.
The U.K. Supreme Court’s decision was one of several decisions made by different bodies that diminished Trump’s standing in the United Kingdom, including the loss of his status as an honorary ambassador for Scottish business and the decision by Aberdeen’s Robert Gordon University to strip him of his honorary degree.
Trump fired back in response to the U.K. Supreme Court’s decision, saying the Scottish government has a “foolish, small-minded, and parochial mentality.” Those are some choice words from a man who has spent years courting Scotland, a land where he claims to feel “comfortable” and feels “Scottish.”
This whole fiasco also soured his relationship with then-First Minister Alex Salmond. Trump accused Salmond of “[doing] more damage to Scotland than virtually any event in Scottish history” by allowing the installation of the wind turbines, because apparently Trump is completely ignorant of everything that happened in Scotland during the Middle Ages.
Things got worse from there. It was revealed that in 2009, one of Salmond’s aides asked Trump to back the release of Libyan Abdelbaset al-Megrahi, on compassionate grounds, from prison. In 2001, al-Megrahi was imprisoned for his involvement in the bomb attack on Pan Am Flight 103, also known as the “Lockerbie incident,” and his release was due to terminal prostate cancer, because Scotland is compassionate enough to let people die with their families and not in a small cell that reeks of piss and black mold.
Trump refused, because of course he did. It’s not like al-Megrahi’s release was popular in Scotland, or the whole of the U.K. for that matter. But later, Trump’s son, the appropriately-named Donald Trump, Jr., claimed Salmond was backing the wind turbines as retribution for Trump’s refusal to endorse al-Megrahi’s release, because apparently the world in which the Trump’s live is a product of soap opera writers. “Once we refused the ridiculous notion of letting an international terrorist out of jail, the entire approach of Alex Salmond’s administration and the entire way he has treated us changed drastically for the worse,” he told The Scotsman.
With Trump’s relationship with Scotland damaged, he decided he wasn’t going to play anymore and in the midst of his temper tantrum, decided to move his attention to Ireland. Yet, the Aberdeen golf course is still open, although it seems ghosts play the holes more often than people do.
This isn’t surprising. This is the shit Trump does. He’s like your run-of-the-mill spoiled child, demanding that everything go his way and if there is any detail of Trump’s elaborate plan that goes awry, he melts down like daddy didn’t get him a Porsche for his Sweet 16. He has a personality you wish you could subject to the Ludovico technique, a face you wish you could just punch without fear of legal recourse, and a cockiness that makes you wish he was stepping on all of the Legos.
Scottish writer Lesley Riddoch probably said it best about Trump, however. He wrote that Trump “is almost the anti-Scot personified” and that “every attribute Scots hold dear is offended by this man.”
Riddoch, Salmond, Milne, and Scotland get it. Why the hell is it so hard for us?
Featured image by DonkeyHotey, available under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
(HT NPR)
