Donald Trump has been stripped of his role as a business ambassador for Scotland by Nicola Sturgeon, as the growing backlash against his comments about Muslims led to calls for a national boycott of his luxury golf resorts.
The billionaire was invited to join the GlobalScot business network in 2006, but the Scottish Government has said his call for all Muslims to be banned from entering the US meant he was “no longer fit to be a business ambassador for Scotland” and that his membership had been withdrawn “with immediate effect”.
A motion has also been lodged at the Scottish Parliament condemning Mr Trump and urging the public to consider boycotting his businesses. The US presidential hopeful owns the Trump International Golf Links and hotel in Aberdeenshire as well as the Turnberry course in Ayrshire.
Patrick Harvie, the Scottish Green MSP for Glasgow, said he had decided to take action against Mr Trump’s “increasingly fascist” public remarks. “Trump is now more than just a vulgar attention-seeker; he represents truly dangerous ideas, and should not be tolerated,” he said, adding that no “self-respecting person” would want to spend money in his hotels and at his golf courses.
The Muslim Council of Scotland described Mr Trump’s recent comments as “beyond belief” and “completely shocking”, but said it was not in favour of banning him from the UK. “In terms of what he’s said in the past, whether it’s ridiculing people with disabilities, Hispanics, women – it’s hardly a surprise that suddenly it’s Muslims he’s turning on,” spokesman Mazher Khan told The Independent. “The man really has no credibility. He’s little more than a comical buffoon.”
Asked about the calls for a boycott of Mr Trump’s Scottish golf resorts, he added: “He has business interests in Scotland and people are quite right to respond accordingly…these expressions of annoyance are perfectly legitimate. We’re quite confident that the American people, when it comes to the ballot box, will see what this man stands for and reject him outright.”
Mr Trump, whose mother was from the Isle of Lewis, was awarded the role as Scottish business ambassador by the then First Minister Lord McConnell. “I’ve enjoyed success over the years and I like to think that part of my achievement can be attributed to my Scottish roots,” the billionaire said at the time.
