PROTESTERS marched against Donald Trump’s Scotland trip at a demonstration in Balmedie today, close to the US president’s Menie golf resort.
The demonstrators, many carrying signs and banners with anti-Trump slogans, were addressed by disability rights campaigners, a member of the CND and a local activist.
Alena Ivanova of the Stop Trump Coalition, the group behind the protest, also told the crowd they had been “inundated” with support from US citizens following Saturday’s protests in Edinburgh and Aberdeen.
She said: “We were inundated by messages on our social media and on email from US citizens deeply, deeply grateful to the people of Scotland for showing up for them, for showing up for the migrants in the States, for showing up for the people of Palestine, for the people that are being genocided right now, for showing up for our common humanity.
“And this is what we are here to do again, and this is what we will keep gathering to do for as long as it takes."
Following the speeches, the crowd were led in a series of anti-Trump chants before heading off to an area on the coast nearer to the Menie course. Those in attendance shared some of their motivations for attending.
Esme, 24, who works for [[Aberdeen]]-based LGBTQ+ group The Granite Gays, said “we’re not very keen on his presence” and “we’re not very happy with the way that our government is cosying up” to him.
She added: “Taxpayers’ money, something like £15 million, has been spent on his visit, plus he’s dragged all these police up here.”
Meanwhile, retired solicitor Jean Abbot, 67, said: “I believe this man is in the process of dismantling western civilisation and all the things that really have made life worth living for my generation.“
He is trashing what two generations of our people have fought wars to preserve, namely democracy and freedom and the rule of law.”
She added that while she could understand why UK leaders had to engage with Donald Trump, “this is a very, very, very bad man and… people should be speaking out against him”.
