A triumph for protesters, a PR disaster for Trump

Well, that went well then, didn’t it?

Trump appeared to insult the Queen with a protocol breach during a visit to Windsor

With the easy charm of an Apartheid-era South African police dog and all the subtlety of a building site wrecking ball, the 45th president of the US is now two days into his inaugural visit to the UK. It feels like a whole lot longer. The house guest from hell arrived on the back of a huge international row following another unhelpful attack on Angela Merkel.

There quickly followed patronising and disrespectful remarks about Theresa May in a newspaper interview before a briefing from a former Trump staffer that the president “hates” Nicola Sturgeon.

Given the disparate backgrounds and wildly varying political views, you have to wonder what it is these three leaders have in common which Trump so dislikes.

In between times, he conducted a Vaudevillian joint press conference with May which had more flipflops than the Cote D’Azur seafront.

He appeared to insult the Queen with a protocol breach during a visit to Windsor Castle, all against a backdrop of tens of thousands of ordinary people protesting. Despite being wrongly dismissed as a “rag tag army of Lef t ie s” in one newspaper and derided by Tory minister Liam Fox they deserve a pat on the back.

Many were opposing his deplorable sexism; others, his policies, from the ban on Muslims from proscribed countries enter ing the US to separating immigrant chi ldren f rom their families.

Then there are those uneasy at the support he has given racist groups from the UK. The claims which emerged yesterday that the president’s own ambassador lobbied the UK on behalf of the jailed racist agitator Tommy Robinson could conceivably mark a new low.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon can chalk up the fact that she didn’t meet Trump as a bullet dodged.

In pure PR terms, yesterday’s Pride march fell perfectly for her.

It showcased all of the values which Trump is so badly lacking. Scotland’s LGBTI community are to be applauded for the love and laughter they brought to Glasgow.

No wonder politicians and businesses are clambering over each other to be associated with this event.

Meanwhile, Trump stalked around his Turnberry course in a USA baseball cap surrounded by police officers.

He will be just a bad memory long before the values on display among the people of London, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee and Aberdeen ever fade.