Trump, Scotland, America and the world

Donald Trump has weighed into the Scottish independence debate in his typically incoherent and ill-informed way. Earlier this month Trump appeared on the podcast of comedian Andrew Schulz. No, I’d never heard of him either. Schulz has been criticised for his right wing takes, racist stereotyping, and his tendency to punch down, characteristics which define right wing so-called comedy, and which doubtless led Trump to think that appearing on the podcast was a good idea, allowing him to court the ‘manoverse’ and preach his message of xenophobic hatred and whiny self-pity to an audience of bros and incels who might be receptive to the idea that Mexicans and having a social conscience are the root cause of all that ails modern America.

Trump’s appearance on the podcast came a few days after his opponent Kamala Harris’s media blitz — which included appearances on 60 Minutes, Call Her Daddy, The View, The Howard Stern Show, and The Late Show With Stephen Colbert. Trump wouldn’t go on CBS’s flagship current affairs show 60 Minutes, where he might have faced serious questioning like Kamala Harris did, instead he went on the podcast of a comedian notable for attacking ‘the libs’ and offering up right wing takes, no doubt in the belief that he’d get an easy ride, and for the most part he did. Schulz has been described as obsequious and lacking in curiosity or critical thinking about his guests’ responses. A perfect venue for the notoriously thin skinned Trump then.

But Trump’s self serving delusion was too much even for Andrew Schulz, during the podcast, Schulz burst out laughing when Trump asserted that he was “basically a truthful person.”

However the most interesting aspect of the podcast for those of us in Scotland was when Schulz, who like Trump has a Scottish mother, brought up the topic of Scotland. Trump said he hoped that the UK always stays together, adding: “You know, they tried to break up Scotland from the rest of the empire, so to speak.

“And it made it by about like a half a point. They kept it together. So I hope it stays together. I hope it always stays together.”

He continued: “But England, as they say, because it used to be England, but England never could. They just, and they were bigger and they had more people. They could never finish it off by capturing Scotland. So it’s really sort of,” Trump said.

Schulz then interrupted: “They ended up having to marry together.” Trump agreed saying: “They married. They became sort of subsidiaries. Right?”

So Scotland is England’s subsidiary and Trump wants Scotland to stay part of the “empire”.

Barack Obama famously intervened in the Scottish independence referendum campaign after being persuaded to do so by David Cameron. Obama stressed that the decision was up to the people of Scotland but said that it was in the interests of the USA “that one of the closest allies we will ever have remains a strong, robust, united and effective partner.” The anti independence media went to town on Obama’s remarks which we only discovered much later were only made because Cameron had pressed him to intervene.

Trump on the other hand would not need to be asked by a British Prime Minister to weigh in on a future Scottish independence referendum debate, he’d do so unbidden and given his long standing antipathy to the Scottish Government and wind turbines, he’d likely be far more forceful and threatening in his denunciation of Scottish independence. He would give the anti-independence media in Scotland a three course dinner in comparison to Obama’s appetiser. No one who supports Scottish independence should wish for a Trump victory next week.

Trump’s opposition to Scottish independence is perhaps the least of the reasons to hope that he fails to win at Tuesday’s presidential election.

Trump has a real hatred for wind turbines, they are a recurring theme in his rambling and inarticulate ramblings. He claims that they cause cancer kill birds and whales, pollute the environment and create a horrible noise. His antipathy to wind turbines dates from him losing a fight with the Scottish Government which allowed an off shore wind farm to be built within sight of his golf course in Aberdeenshire. He has since gone deep down the rabbit hole of climate change denial, going so far as to claim that rising sea levels are a good thing as it will create more beach front property. Yes, he actually said that. Trump says he would “Drill, baby, drill.” He’d tear up global attempts to tackle climate change, burning the whole world in order to enrich the fossil fuel lobby.

Trump poses an existential threat to democracy in America, he seeks to become a dictator, he will stuff the US Supreme Court with far right judges of the sort who have already overturned abortion rights. This is a man who is an adjudicated rapist whose ex wife Ivanka accused of rape, a misogynist who will overturn legislation entrenching the right of women to equal pay and freedom from discrimination.

Next up, equal marriage and anti-discrimination laws protecting not just women, but people of colour and members of the LGBT community. Trump will weaponise the Justice Department to target his political enemies and has threatened to revoke the broadcasting licences of broadcasters who dare to criticise him. He has promised to invoke the Aliens Act, the 18th century legislation used to intern Japanese Americans during WW2, even though most of them were US citizens. Trump will use this measure against the immigrant communities, vowing to carry out mass deportations.

His running mate JD Vance – who wrote the foreword to Project 2025 a Christian nationalist prospectus for a Trump presidency – makes no secret of his wish for a federal abortion ban, even in pregnancies resulting from rape or incest. Vance’s and Trump’s allies in Project 2025 have signalled that once they have achieved a federal abortion ban, next in their sights will be restrictions on access to contraception. Project 2025 has already published detailed plans to restrict access to birth control. Given Trump’s age and his obvious cognitive and physical decline, there is no guarantee he’d survive a four year term and we’d be looking at the even more frightening prospect of Vance as president. Vance is a full throated supporter of the truly dystopian Project 2025 and is a creature of the out and out fascist billionaire Peter Thiel.

Aware that Project 2025 is toxic electorally, Trump tries to deny any association with it. He’s lying, like he lies about so many things. It’s called Project 2025 for a reason. Not Project 2029.

Trump will cut off US aid to Ukraine, effectively surrendering that country to his pal Putin, whose authoritarian dictatorship Trump sees as something to aspire to. But a Trump victory will not avert a global war. Kamala Harris and Joe Biden have been rightfully criticised for their support of Benjamin Netanyahu and the genocidal destruction in Gaza, but bad as they are for the Palestinians, Trump and the Republicans would be orders of magnitude worse. In the Senate and in Congress Republicans have worked overtime to block humanitarian aid to the starving children in Gaza.

Trump has insisted that Netanyahu is doing a good job but is being held back by Biden. He has suggested that the Gaza Strip would make excellent beachfront property for Israeli development . Earlier this year Trump’s son in law Jared Kushner called for Palestinians to be removed from the territory while it is “cleaned up.” Of course once removed it is unlikely that they would ever be allowed to return. Kushner, who very much reflects Trump’s own views on Israel/Palestine, described a Palestinian state as a “super bad idea” adding that it “would essentially be rewarding an act of terror”.

Trump would turbo charge Netanyahu and the Israeli far right, emboldening them to make Gaza uninhabitable and ramping up illegal settlements and land grabs in the West Bank and encouraging Israel to attack Iran and Lebanon. The Washington Post recently reported that in a phone call with Netanyahu earlier this month, former Trump offered his full support for the wars in Lebanon and Gaza, telling the Israeli prime minister to “do what you have to do.”

The Washington Post also quotes Michael Oren, a former Israeli ambassador to the United States. who said that a Trump win would “release any constraints that might be on the state of Israel, letting Israel finish the job” in Gaza. That could make the horrors of the last year pale into insignificance in comparision to the death and devastation to come. Meanwhile the Guardian has reported that senior defence officials recently told the daily Haaretz that the Israeli government is planning to annex large parts of the Palestinian territory. Trump would not object, indeed he’d give Netanyahu his enthusiastic backing.

The fate of the whole world, not just the USA, lies in the balance.

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