'Donald Trump' has become the ultimate insult in Scottish politics – Scotsman comment

You are just like Donald Trump! No, you’re the new Trump, I think you’ll find! The high-profile golf course owner has become the ultimate insult in Scottish politics.

Donald Trump appears to be the epitome of everything Scottish politicians do not want to be (Picture: Tom Pennington/Getty Images)

The latest bout of what could be called ‘Trump slinging' came from the First Minister’s official spokesperson, who appeared riled by opposition suggestions that his boss had been acting a bit like the former US President.

“The only people behaving like Donald Trump are the unionist politicians who are trying to pretend they won an election they lost. There is a clear denial of democracy at play,” the spokesperson said. “They are throwing around the Trump jibes, I’m merely saying that the only people behaving like Donald Trump are people who try and deny the reality of election results.”

It’s a slightly odd situation when someone says things on another’s behalf. Who exactly is speaking? Whether Sturgeon would have used the same or even similar words remains unclear.

However, while we should guard against Trumpishness (Trumpetry? Trumposity? Suggestions to the letters page please), it’s worth noting that, so far, no Scottish politician has come close.

After all, Trump is a politician who incited an armed mob to attack the US Capitol, suggested injecting Covid patients with disinfectant (a potentially fatal mistake), and congratulated Vladimir Putin on his re-election as Russian president in 2018 – despite the Salisbury poisonings by Russian agents just days earlier – even though his own national security advisers specifically told him not to in block capital letters on a briefing note.

So the Scottish Liberal Democrats’ suggestion that the First Minister's spokesperson “needs a camomile tea and a lie down” sounds about right.