The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Lockdown welcomes world’s most recognisable hairdo
In a visit to Scotland in 2012 a rubber-armed protester used a balloon to make Donald Trump’s emblematic thatch stand on end.
The hair-raising scrum was not the most dignified exit from the Scottish Parliament for the notoriously vain property tycoon, who was giving evidence to MSPs on windfarms.
There was no risk that he would suffer a similar indignity as he made his first steps in his ancestral homeland since becoming US President.
Prestwick was in lockdown for the arrival of the world’s most recognisable hairdo, with police lining every 100m of the airport’s perimeter and a three-hour holding period for waiting media.
A crowd of 200 people on the edge of the Scottish Government-owned airport was initially mistaken for protesters, but turned out to be a throng of plane spotters, keen for a rare sighting of Air Force One.
Before the landing, a sunglassed suited American was wiping down the handrails of the steps, in recognition of Trump’s fear of germs.
A team of snipers stood at their vantage point on an elevated platform safe a few feet away.
They were all kept waiting by Trump, who had been interviewed by his pal Piers Morgan in Essex.
“You’ll probably need an Irn Bru,” a White House aide, who had done his Scots beverage research, told the waiting journalist pen.
A 25-vehicle convoy arriving gave the cue Trump was imminent, confirmed by the sight of Air Force One’s majestic descent, piercing late Ayrshire sun.
Scottish Secretary David Mundell, who had been practising his handshakes beforehand, was the point man for the British Government, meeting the president on the airfield.
The billionaire told the Tory MP he was proud of his Scottish ancestry, was looking forward to playing golf and hoped the weather would play ball.
After a day of diplomatic bombshells and gaffes, the president was clearly keen for more light-hearted pursuits in Scotland.
Earlier yesterday, he humiliated Mrs May by talking up her arch rival Boris Johnson as prime minister and slating her Brexit plan.
Also, if an account from a Downing Street source is to be taken at face value, Mr Trump cannot stand Nicola Sturgeon and spends much of his phone conversations with Mrs May ranting about the SNP leader.
It will not all be fairways and 19th holes for Mr Trump in Scotland.
While it seems likely he will be shielded from the gauntlet of protests, he will struggle not to notice the venting of anti-Trump anger that is mushrooming across Scotland, including in Dundee.
In Edinburgh, he will be trolled from range by a novelty-sized baby balloon, the inflatable Trump effigy which is to be hoisted in Edinburgh’s Meadows after it was banned from being deployed outside the President’s Turnberry resort and next to Holyrood.
He claims Britain “likes him a lot”. The evidence of the trip would appear to the contrary.
He will struggle not to notice the venting of anti-Trump anger that is mushrooming across Scotland, including in Dundee