Trump boss hits out at ‘jerk off ’ Salmond and ‘stupid’ Scots officials
The Trump Organisation’ s outgoing executive vice- president has reopened the company’ s feud with Alex Salmond, describing the former first minister as an “egotistical jerk off ”.
George So rial, who oversaw the US president’s firm’s expansion into Scotland, also railed against the country’ s “antiquated” planning system and described Scottish Government officials as“stupid ”.
The broadside against Scotland’s political class comes in a new book he has written with Damian Bates, a former editor of Aberdeen’s Press & Journal newspaper, who in 2013 married Sarah Malone, executive vice-president of Trump International Golf Links.
It comes as the Trump Organisation seeks planning approval from Aberdeenshire Council for a major expansion of the loss-making resort.
The book – The Real Deal: My Decade Fighting Battles and Winning Wars with Trump –is an account of Mr Sorial’s time working under Mr Trump, who is billed in flattering terms throughout.
Only yesterday, the president recommended the publication to his 61 million Twitter followers, describing it as a “really wonderful” book written by“two people who are very smart and know me well”.
The scathing assessment of Mr S almond stems from a clash of culinary cultures when the politician first met Mr Trump in New York.
According to Mr Sorial, Mr Trump wanted to meet at a “regular” restaurant, only for Scottish officials to make “ridiculous” calls and book a “high end” French eatery.
Mr So rial recalls :“There was not a word of English on the menu. It was so fussy and I remember sitting there thinking ‘oh my God, what have they done here?’ All Trump said after studying the menu was ‘all I want is a shrimp cocktail and a steak’.”
Mr So rial, who also served as chief compliance counsel at the Trump Organisation, hit out at the “antiquated and parochial Scottish planning system” and said he was “incandescent with rage” after an Aberdeenshire Council committee threw out the plans for Mr Trump’s inaugural Scottish resort in 2007.
The local authority will soon consider plans for its second phase. The Trump Organisation promises to spend £150 million building up to 500 homes. Some 21,640 people have objected to the scheme.
Elsewhere, Mr Sorial hit out at Mr Trump’ s S cottishcr itics, claiming the firm“hardly touched” the network of dunes at its Aberdeen shire property. A 2016 draft Scottish Natural Heritage report concluded part of the site was “destroyed or damaged” by the golf course.
Mr So rial and Mr Bates met Mr Trump several times for the book, even dining on thyme-brined chicken breast in the White House’ s Blue Room.
“There was not a word of English on the menu. It was so fussy and I remember sitting there thinking ‘oh my God, what have they done here?’”
GEORGE SORIAL