Europe bemused by Trump’s ’16 bid

With his distressed hairstyle, voluptuous female companions and love of the media spotlight, U.S. tycoon Donald Trump is no stranger to people on this side of the Atlantic.

But his bid to become president of the United States has got people scratching their heads.

Seen by many as a kind of cartoon character despite his business successes, “The Donald” has baffled and angered in equal measure with a series of controversial comments.

His remarks that many Mexican immigrants were rapists were widely reported in Europe and generally considered beyond the pale.

Mr. Trump’s appearance Thursday at a Scottish golf resort that he owns turned into a political circus. Instead of talking about fairways and greens, he was bombarded with questions on his Mexican comment and asked if he was a racist. He was unapologetic.

The fact that polls show him leading the race to be the Republican Party’s nominee for the U.S. presidential election in November 2016 only adds to the bafflement.

In Spain’s El Pais newspaper, Hector Schamis wrote that the Republican Party was now a prisoner of its own design.

Mr. Trump’s comments about the Mexicans were morally reprehensible and raised questions about his rationale, Mr. Schamis said. But they also played to many core Republican supporters who were white, conservative, poor and xenophobic.

The conservative London weekly the Spectator called Mr. Trump “a barmy billionaire with a mouth bigger than his bank balance.” The fact that he was leading the race was a sad indictment of the American political process, Tim Stanley wrote.

In Scotland, The Glasgow Herald said Mr. Trump’s comments about Mexicans put at risk his Turnberry resort’s status as one of the traditional hosts of golf’s prestigious Open Championship as organizers were worried they would hurt the brand.

“The more we learn about this greedy, racist bully, the more ashamed we should be of letting him establish any presence at all in Scotland,” Patrick Harvie, a leader of the Scottish Greens party and member of the Scottish parliament, told the Herald.

In Germany, the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper called Mr. Trump a “loudmouth.”

“Trump behaves like an egomaniac. He seeks attention. He makes racist comments. And he makes terrible mistakes like mocking the war veteran John McCain.”

The mass-circulation Bild published a list of Mr. Trump’s “craziest” quotes, and also took him to task for his criticism of Mr. McCain, a Republican senator who spent more than five years as a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War.

“The real estate mogul prefers to keep quiet about his own ‘military career’ because it shows no signs of heroism or patriotism,” it said.