Thousands flock to George Square for Trump protest
George Square packed as President arrives in Scotland
We stand here today to protest against the visit of the 45th President of the United States of America
THOUSANDS of people filled George Square to protest about Donald Trump’s visit as the US president touched down at Prestwick Airport.
The protest came after tens of thousands of demonstrators swarmed the streets of central London during Mr Trump’s first visit to the UK as US president.
The Glasgow rally – dubbed ‘Dump Trump’ – saw people of all ages and from all walks of life cram into the Square to blast the world leader’s policies, including immigration and women’s rights.
Hundreds of colourful placards and message boards – many with expletives – filled the area in front of the City Chambers buildings.
Leader of the Scottish Labour Party, Richard Leonard, was one of many highprofile speakers to take to the stage where he told Mr Trump: “You shall not pass.”
Mr Leonard added: “We gather in George Square shoulder to shoulder. From all parties and from none. From all faiths and from none.
“We stand here today to protest against the visit of the 45th President of the United States of America. We protest his misogyny, his Islamophobia and, as long as there is a travel ban to America on the grounds of religious intolerance, we should impose a travel ban on Donald Trump and ban him from Prestwick Airport which is owned on behalf of the people by the Scottish Government.
“We are on the streets to demonstrate against his racism, his bigotry, his denunciation of climate change and his anti-trade union actions. There is much that we are against.”
The Scottish Greens’ co-convener Patrick Harvie also told crowds Scotland stands in solidarity with those in the US who are threatened and marginalised by Mr Trump’s administration.
Mr Harvie also recalled Scotland’s troublesome past with the US tycoon, referencing the Balmedie resident who the billionaire infamously claimed “lived like a pig” in “a slum”.
Glasgow’s Green MSP also ridiculed Mr Trump’s claim in 2012 that erecting wind farms would bring about the “almost total destruction of Scotland’s tourism industry”, citing the President’s decision to visit Scotland for a golfing holiday six years later.
After meeting the Queen last night, Mr Trump landed at Glasgow Prestwick Airport with his wife Melania shortly after 8pm amid high security.
The couple then headed to the luxury Trump Turnberry, hotel, spa and golf resort, located 23 miles south of Prestwick Airport, where they are believed to be spending the rest of their weekend.
Var ious protests are planned to coincide with the president’s visit to Scotland, including a national demonstration and “carnival of resistance” in Edinburgh.
Earlier in the day, Mr Trump and Theresa May scrambled to salvage the Special Relationship after he warned her that her soft Brexit plan would ‘ kill’ a transatlantic trade deal and heaped praise on Boris Johnson.
Mrs May said the pair had agreed to pursue an ‘ambitious’ trade deal after the UK leaves the EU. Mr Trump also adopted a softer tone – saying he was hoping for a strong trade deal and revealing he had said sorry to ‘incredible lady’ Mrs May for causing her trouble.
“Whatever you do is OK by us,” Mr Trump said.
But the president suggested he is still not certain the UK will leave the EU, and repeated his view that Brexiteer Mr Johnson would be a ‘great PM’.
“Once the Brexit process is concluded and perhaps the UK has left the EU – I don’t know what they are going to do but whatever you do is OK with me. That’s your decision,” he said.
“Just make sure we are
able to trade together.
“The US looks forward to finalising a great bilateral trade agreement with the UK. This is a great opportunity for our two countries and we will seize it fully.”
Mr Trump also claimed he successfully predicted the outcome of the Brexit vote on his last visit to the UK, when he in fact spoke about the issue the day after the referendum was held.
Speaking alongside Mrs May at Chequers, the president said he had forecast the outcome of the vote when he visited Scotland to officially reopen his Turnberry golf resort in 2016.
He said: “If you remember I was opening Turnberry the day before Brexit.”
However the president, who was at the time the Republican candidate for the White House, carried out the ribbon-cutting ceremony on June 24 2016 - the day after the crunch vote.
The US president was presented with an illustrated ancestral chart capturing his Scottish heritage by Mrs May. The family tree traces the US president’s lineage through his mother, Mary Anne Macleod, who was born in 1912 on the Isle of Lewis in the Hebrides.
It follows her family on both sides back three generations through official records and old parish registers.
Downing Street said the gift to President Trump, who is the first US president for more than 100 years with a parent born in the UK, “underlines the deep historical links” that many modern-day Americans have with the United Kingdom.
Mrs May gave Melania Trump a bottle, engraved with her initials, of bespoke perfume by J. Floris.
The scent is called The First Lady and is made up from the sakura cherry blossom prominent in Washington DC, rose heart for the national flower of the United States and England, and bergamot with its “distinctively British scent” of Earl Grey tea, No 10 said.