We might despise Trump but we DO need to defend US relations
SO what is the perfect diet for a septuagenarian? One with a high-pressure job; a genius who needs stability. Twelve diet cokes a day, apparently. Cheeseburgers – from McDonald’s, in case of poisoning, allegedly. A chocolate milkshake from the same place
THAT President Donald J. Trump’s comments about Haiti, El Salvador and a number of African nations apply more to himself and his presidency than them cannot be doubted. He called them ‘s***holes’. The convulsion of shock, abhorrence and embarrassment that has gripped the United States since he made these remarks is real.
While friends of his claim he is apparently revelling in the controversy, what he thinks is playing to his ‘base’ has debased his country.
Now, I will admit that on this trip to the US I have not spoken to any truck drivers called ‘Chuck’ in a diner in Kentucky, one of the states that voted overwhelmingly for him. Nor have I talked to anyone who likes to wear a white pointy hat and set fire to a cross of an evening.
But every American I have met has volunteered their sense of flesh-creeping embarrassment at their president without prompting.
There is a feeling they are looking for forgiveness. They hope that people abroad realise it is worse for them than anyone else. They just want the pain to end.
In a country whose strength was born of immigration, race remains a volatile issue. Now, for the first time in living memory, there is consensus that the President is racist – a word even used by Republican strategist Shermichael Singleton, who happens to be black.
The Republicans are the party of Abraham Lincoln, for goodness sake. These comments were made on the eve of Donald Trump signing a proclamation marking Dr Martin Luther King day.
The response of the American media and many politicians of his own party has been unequivocal and damning. Even Fox News has criticised him.
The question for us is, what is our response? President Trump’s controversial state visit to the UK has been postponed but now there are discussions on whether he will travel to the UK early this year.
It is understood that a curtailed visit may be limited to Scotland – a trip to Turnberry and an audience with the Queen at Balmoral.
Already the virtue signallers are twitching. Professional protesters are painting fresh banners.
It paints our First Minister into a corner. Will Nicola Sturgeon’s response be that of a grown-up running a UK nation’s devolved administration, or will she respond like the president of a student union?
The US has been the UK’s closest ally for more than a century. Our biggest, best friend through two world wars. Now that it is sick – suffering from acute Trumpism – do we walk away and condemn the US? Or do we try to honour the office of President, if not the man who occupies it, and nurse our friends through their pain?
We rely on the US for defence – even the anti-nuclear SNP wants to be protected by the nuclear umbrella it largely provides through Nato.
American investment and trade equates to Scottish jobs. Indeed, the Scottish Government’s first foreign representative was to Washington.
China’s President Xi Jinping was afforded a state visit to the UK and while his words may be far more emollient and better chosen than those of Mr Trump, his record on human rights is not comparable to that of the US.
Yet we deal with him, even though he is arguing for China to be the world’s most dominant power and that its strength proves democracy doesn’t work.
The fact is, Scotland is a small country on the northern edge of Europe. To prosper we need the best possible economic links with the US – the world’s largest economy – and China, which is likely to overtake it.
Indeed, that latter point was acknowledged by our own First Minister when she tried – and through incompetence failed – to do a secret trade deal with China.
You can argue whether America has an irresponsible adolescent in the White House or a racist narcissist suffering from dementia.
The question is whether Scotland’s leaders will react like pragmatic adults or join in Donald Trump’s offensive adolescence. Do you try to influence or indulge in condemnation?
When President George W. Bush was elected, the liberal consensus in this country was that he was the most extreme Republican of modern times to occupy the White House. Now we have Mr Trump, who wouldn’t want ‘Dubbya’ back instead?
His reaction to 9/11 threatened to be swift and murderous and our then prime minister, Tony Blair, still pays the price for trying to get close to him and moderate his plans. Whatever your views on Iraq or Afghanistan, Mr Blair was right to try to influence a man who seemed reckless.
Our relationship with the US is too important, and too strong, to allow Mr Trump to destroy it.
And let us remember that you could describe him as one of Scotland’s most notable exports to the US.
His mother, Mary Anne MacLeod, emigrated from the Isle of Lewis to New York in 1930. That means he could play for Scotland.
We don’t need to defend Mr Trump, but we do need to defend our relationship with the US.
The country is Britain’s greatest friend. We should try to help the nation, not abandon it.
To do so might rightly earn us the description the President reserves for Haiti.