Alan Cumming launches verbal attack on Donald Trump

Alan Cumming takes up residence in The Hub for the month of August. Picture: Toby Williams

The New York-based actor branded Trump a “racist and a sexist” and said the US was on the brink of “going back to medieval times” during his Edinburgh International Festival show.

And he urged his fellow American citizens to wake up over the prospect of Trump moving into the White House within the next few months.

The Cabaret star attacked the Republican candidate for clumsily wading into the aftermath of the Brexit debate during a visit to his “shabby old golf course” in Ayrshire.

The Perthshire-born actor said Trump’s much-publicised blunder, when he mistakenly tweeted that Scotland had voted to leave the EU, had exposed his lack of grasp of international affairs.

However, Cumming has laughed off his own controversial intervention into the post-Brexit debate, when he suggested that “stupid English people” were to blame for the Brexit result.

He later apologised for “any offence caused”, but said his sense of humour had been misunderstood.

Cumming, who shot to fame in Fringe double act Victor and Barry with Forbes Masson, is appearing in a late-night cabaret show for the whole of the Festival.

It is inspired by dressing-room parties he hosted during the Broadway run of Cabaret, the show which helped Cumming make his name in the United States when he first performed it there in 1998.

Cumming is also hosting a number of late-night after-parties at the festival’s headquarters at The Hub, on the Royal Mile, which has been transformed into “Club Cumming” for the month.

Speaking during his cabaret show, Cumming told the audience that he would have voted to remain in the EU had he been able to participate in June’s referendum.

He added: “What I thought was absolutely hilariously serendipitous was that on the day the Brexit result was announced, by the jingling of the political spheres, Donald Trump landed in Scotland.

“Running for American president obviously wasn’t enough of a job for him – he was here to promote his shabby old golf course.

“He tweeted to say ‘Just arrived in Scotland. The people is going nuts. They’ve taken back their country.

“We voted to stay you stupid, c***. If that lack of grasp of international politics is not a reason for this man not to be the president of the United States of America I do not know what is.

“If you know any Americans tell them to get their s*** together. He’s racist and sexist and I just think we’re on the bring of going back into medieval times if he gets anywhere near that White House.”

Meanwhile, Cumming’s special guests who joined him on stage at his first club night in the early hours of yesterday morning included Tony Award-winning theatre director John Tiffany, who worked with Cumming on previous EIF hit The Bacchae, festival cabaret star Meow Meow, who is appearing with Australian comedy legend Barry Humphries at the festival, and Glasgow singer-songwriter Frances Thorburn.

Cumming returned to the stage with his band to perform several numbers and was also the house DJ, eventually being persuaded to leave the stage after 3am.

Further after-show parties will be staged on August 11, 12, 20, 21, 26 and 27, with priority going to ticket-holders for his cabaret show, Alan Cumming Sings Sappy Songs.