Donald Trump is real danger to US security, says Alex Salmond
Scotlands former first minister says Trump is so unstable that prospect of him becoming president should give us all the heebie-jeebies
Alex Salmond, Scotlands former first minister, has warned US voters that Donald Trump is an emotionally stunted manchild who presents a real and present danger to the security of the American republic.
Salmond said his many dealings with Trump over the property tycoons controversial golf course near Aberdeen and a nearby windfarm had persuaded him that Trump was so unstable that the prospect of him becoming US president should give us all the heebie-jeebies.
Salmond said he was still unclear whether the Republican candidates attacks on Mexican immigrants and Muslims were political calculation or genuinely held racist views.
It is a matter of debate as to whether it is more comforting to believe that a candidate says disgusting things not because he believes them but because he thinks they might benefit him in a campaign, Salmond said in an article for the Daily Record.
It is an open question whether a demagogue is preferable to a genuine racist.
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Salmond then linked Trumps candidacy to the famous attack ads used by the US Democrats in 1964 against the then Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater, which stated: In your guts you know hes nuts.
As head of the Scottish government and the MSP for Gordon, the constituency around Trumps estate, Salmond played a key role in the developers successful quest to build the worlds greatest golf course in Aberdeenshire against heavy opposition from Trumps neighbours and Scotlands major environment organisations.
Salmond had endorsed Trumps claims that he was justified in bulldozing a legally protected dunes system, designated as a site of special scientific interest under the UKs environment laws, because the resort would create thousands of jobs and involve a 750m sports, hotel and housing development of national importance.
In fact, eight years after winning approval for the resort, Trump now only employs 95 people, many of whom are seasonal or part-time, and has only invested about 30m in the course, a single-storey club house, and a small boutique hotel.
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The two men fell out after Trump furiously attacked a small experimental offshore windfarm being planned several miles from his course, which was backed by Salmond and many of Trumps other local allies, including the Robert Gordon University and Sir Ian Wood, an influential industrialist.
That dispute made him a target for bizarre Trump ravings, Salmond wrote, adding: Trump swings from public support to extreme opposition with no intervening period whatsoever.
Indeed in the course of a single phone call he would veer alarmingly from bonhomie, to bullying, to pleading and then back to a jocular mood. Emotionally he is a Peter Pan the boy who never grew up.
And this disagreement between us was just about wind turbines! Imagine the consequences if similar phone calls were taking place from the oval office, not Trump tower, and the subject matter was not wind power but hard power the use or deployment of military force and nuclear weaponry.
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Salmond urged the Democrats to repeat their Daisy attack advert used against Goldwater. It shows a lovely young girl counting daisy petals from one to 10, which then morphs into a countdown to a nuclear strike from 10 to one. Its purpose was to highlight the danger of a Goldwater presidency, he wrote.
As this presidential campaign now reaches its climax, they should consider using such an approach again.
Because while many disgruntled Americans are still attracted to the Trump anti-establishment, anti-Washington, anti-big government rhetoric there are only a few who want to risk a manchild in the White House.
The truth is indeed out there because: In your guts you know hes nuts.
Salmonds distaste for Trumps Islamophobic and anti-migrant rhetoric is not new. He endorsed the decision by his successor, Nicola Sturgeon, to strip Trump of his status as an honorary Scottish trade ambassador last year, and backed a petition calling for the UK government to ban Trump from entering the UK.