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Patrick Harvie: 'Trump is not welcome in Scotland'

Patrick Harvie: 'Trump is not welcome in Scotland'

Glasgow Timesa day ago
Now reports suggest that the first convicted criminal ever to serve as President of the United States is planning another visit to our shores.
In 2023, Trump was found guilty of thirty-four charges relating to false accounting in his business, after he paid $130,000 in hush money to cover up an affair with a porn star.
Trump also has dozens of sexual assault allegations against him dating back to the 1970s.
His contempt for women, his racism, and his climate denial have all been clear for decades.
At home, Trump has sent troops onto the streets to threaten his own citizens.
He is constructing a concentration camp in Florida, and sending agents to terrorise working-class immigrant communities across America, where people are being seized from their homes, businesses, and places of worship, and deported without fair process, ripping families apart.
He has slashed funding from crucial services – a move which has already cost the lives of working-class people – to give tax breaks to his billionaire pals.
Donald Trump rides roughshod over the rights of his own citizens, but his actions show the same contempt for international law, from withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement to welcoming Israel's Prime Minister to Washington D.C. while Netanyahu has an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court for war crimes.
It's revolting to see this celebration of the man behind the ongoing atrocities and genocide of innocent civilians in Gaza and the West Bank.
Leaders who break international law, who show such utter disdain for human rights at home and abroad, should not be treated like other world leaders.
They should be treated like pariahs, not normalised.
Recently, Trump's Vice President directly attacked Scottish democracy, spreading lies about a bill led by my Green MSP colleague Gillian Mackay and passed overwhelmingly by Parliament.
One of the most senior people in another nation's government had deliberately spread misinformation about our politics and laws, and yet the UK Government still plans to welcome his regime with open arms.
Trump has forfeited the right to the red carpet treatment, and it is frankly embarrassing to see UK leaders continuing to pander to him instead of calling him out.
Given Keir Starmer's track record, we can expect a display of deference without a single word of challenge to Trump's fascism.
But it's not just down to Westminster and the UK Government.
The Scottish Government must also make it clear that Trump is not welcome here.
We in the Scottish Greens have long called for an investigation into Donald Trump's finances in Scotland through an Unexplained Wealth Order (UWO) – a power held by the Scottish Government to investigate the finances of politically active individuals who have gained wealth through suspicious means.
Trump's Menie Estate golf course, which he is set to visit this month, was cited in one of his felony charges, which makes it clearer than ever that a UWO must be used.
Playing golf while babies starve to death in a man-made, live-streamed genocide is a sickening display of wealth and power.
The SNP Government should make it clear that we in Scotland are not playing along.
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