The US president promoting Scotland is a “good thing” regardless of his politics, the leader of Scottish Labour has said.
Anas Sarwar has been consistently outspoken about Donald Trump, accusing him of racism in 2020.
But on Tuesday Mr Sarwar was in a grandstand at Trump International Golf Links in Aberdeenshire as an invited guest of the US president, who opened a second course at the club.
Speaking to the PA news agency after the event, the Scottish Labour leader said it was not about politics.
“I disagree with the politics of Donald Trump, I will continue to disagree with much of the politics of Donald Trump, I’ll continue to press on issues that I care about both here at home and right across the globe,” he said.
“But what we’re doing here today is not endorsing a politician – I have strong political disagreements with the politics of Donald Trump, just as the prime minister has different politics to the president.
“What we’re doing here today is recognising the significant investment in Scotland.
“This is a great facility here in Scotland which we want to attract people from right across the globe to come and visit, as well as other parts of the country.
“And we want to demonstrate to people that Scotland’s a great place to do business.
“If the most powerful man in the world and possibly the most famous man in the world is helping project Scotland as a good place to do business, then that can only be a good thing, regardless of what people think of the politics.”
Pushed on whether an accusation of racism can be described as a “disagreement”, Mr Sarwar did not answer.
He said: “When you have big political disagreements, particularly when you have two countries who share so much in common in terms of heritage, culture, then you still have to have strong person-to-person relationships, strong community-to-community relationships, you’ve still got to have business-to-business relationships and you’ve still got to maintain strong ties, even if you disagree on politics, because that’s in the national interest.”
