TRUMP

WHAT TRUMP STANDS FOR 73
“He doesn’t have no heart, that man,” Coking said of Trump, calling
him “a maggot, a cockroach, and a crumb.” 282 )
The Balmedie development itself produced few of the anticipated
benefits. Years later, having bulldozed the dunes and intimidated the
neighbors, Trump’s resort “employs fewer than 100 people and has lost
millions of pounds since it opened.” 283 According to the Washington
Post, the course is “lonely and desolate,” having attracted “no major
tournaments,” and with a parking lot that is “rarely, if ever, full.” 284
Officials had allowed Trump to flatten an environmentally protected
area because the benefits Trump promised to the region outweighed
the anticipated cost in damage to rare coastal habitats. But the benefits
turned out to be illusory.
As a result of Trump’s swindle, public opinion in Scotland turned
strongly against him. Robert Gordon University revoked the honorary
degree they had given him. 285 Michael Forbes beat out tennis star
Sir Andy Murray in a vote for “Scot of the Year.” 286 (Forbes now flies
a Mexican flag from his farm next to the golf course, as a gesture of
anti-Trump solidarity. 287 ) Former Scottish National Party leader Alex
Salmond, who had initially championed Trump’s golf course project,
accused Trump of “sociopathic behavior.” 288 “We welcome all Americans
- minus Trump,” Salmond said. 289 Filmmaker Anthony Baxter,
who has made a documentary about Trump’s battle against the Scots,
has suggested the project was a “disaster to the environment and a
callous disruption of people’s lives by a ruthless one-percenter run
amok.” 290 Over the course of the project’s development, Trump “battled
with homeowners, elbowed his way through the planning process,
shattered relationships with elected leaders and sued the Scottish
government,” but “has yet to fulfill the lofty promises he made.” 291
David Milne concludes that the golf course project ruined something
irreplaceable: “It was a perfect place to live... It was a unique and
valuable wilderness, valuable to Scotland, to the UK and to those of
us who live here. This development is a tragedy.” 292 92-year-old Molly