‘Ya radge orange barmpot!’ Donald Trump faces thousands of protesters in Scotland
Trump’s return to his ancestral homeland did not go well for him, as protesters in Glasgow, Edinburgh and at his Turnberry golf course let him know he is not welcome in Scotland
It’s not the kind of greeting Scotland’s tourist brochures advertise, let alone what a world leader might expect.
As US President Donald Trump took a short holiday at one of the two golf resorts he owns in the country, protesters amassed in Glasgow, at his Turnberry resort, and in the capital of Edinburgh on Saturday – with around 9,000 in Edinburgh alone, police estimated.
When Trump and his wife, Melania, arrived at Prestwick Airport, near his Turnberry resort, on Friday evening, they were greeted by David Mundell, British Prime Minister Theresa May’s minister for Scotland.
Neither Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon nor any of her government will be meeting him. The semi-autonomous administration even asked the UK to reimburse the cost of policing the visit.
Trump’s stopover is a private visit sandwiched between this week’s Nato summit in Brussels and talks with May and then a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki on Monday.
The reception – or lack of it – shows how Scotland has soured on Trump, even after he’s poured millions of dollars into the country where his mother was born, and as May tries to build bridges despite the president’s criticism of her policies.