'Trump as ridiculous as the thatch on his head'

Published on Wednesday 5 August 2009 22:03

HOSTILITIES have been resumed after a 14-year break in a slanging match between world-famous property tycoon Donald Trump and one of Britain's best-known television presenters, Selina Scott.

A controversial documentary that first sparked a row between Trump and Scott in 1995 has surfaced again, at the centre of fresh claims of a "smear campaign" against the flamboyant American.

In a bizarre twist to the furore surrounding Trump's plan to build a 1 billion golf resort in Aberdeenshire, all 68 members of the local council have received copies of the documentary, which was screened on ITV, together with the message: "Know who you are dealing with."

Detectives from Grampian Police have been brought in to establish whether a crime has been committed.

Yesterday, Trump added fuel to the fire of the controversy by using the distribution of the DVD to launch a fresh verbal attack on Scott, once voted the sexiest woman in television.

In a statement, he declared: "Selina Scott was a third-class journalist who is now ancient history and she treated me unfairly. It was a boring story then and she has since faded into oblivion where she belongs."

But Scott immediately hit back. She told The Scotsman: "Whether beautiful, protected, wild country should be ploughed up for hotel accommodation, in order to enhance Mr Trump's corporation in America, is a matter for the good citizens of Aberdeenshire.

"However, once again Mr Trump has made himself look as ridiculous as the thatch he wears on his head."

The pair first traded insults in the summer of 1995 after Ms Scott's documentary painted the business tycoon in a less than flattering light and featured a prominent American financial journalist questioning his business dealings.

Trump branded the former Grampian Television reporter as "sleazy and obnoxious" and accused her of being "deceptive and dishonest" as she interrogated him at his headquarters at Trump Tower in New York, his casinos in Atlantic City and Mar- a-Lago, his 125-room holiday home in Palm Beach.

In turn, Scott accused Trump of having an ego "as big as the Empire State Building".

DVD copies of the documentary were delivered by post to every Aberdeenshire councillor on Tuesday. George Sorial, the managing director for international development at the Trump Organisation, slammed the use of the DVD.

He said: "

It's an attempt to smear Mr Trump in some way. It's pathetic. If you have something to say about the project, you should stand up and say it. I think these anonymous submissions are truly the actions of a weakling and a coward."

But Martin Ford, the independent councillor who has been a leading opponent of the Menie development, retorted: "How can Donald Trump say he is being smeared by an interview he gave himself? This was a television interview – about as public as you can get. "