05-05-2025
It's time for ministers to stop politicking and investigate Trump
He is a habitual liar and political fraudster. With a lifetime of controversies and 34 charges of falsifying records upheld against him last year by a New York court, his business practices have always been controversial.
I first began raising questions about Trump in the early 2000s when he was very publicly lobbying then-first minister Alex Salmond's Scottish Government to oppose renewable energy sources and to support his controversial golf course in Aberdeenshire.
There were too many red flags, and, right from the start, there were concerns about where the money had come from.
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He didn't like the scrutiny, and, in what wasn't necessarily a high point for either of us, he even tried to have me disciplined for blasphemy in 2012 over a tweet in which I poked fun at one of his egotistical quotes when he appeared at a Holyrood committee hearing.
It was 2017 when I first called for an investigation into the purchase of the land for the site, and for the Trump Turnberry resort in Ayrshire.
I urged the Scottish Government to use an Unexplained Wealth Order (UWO), a mechanism that allows investigations into 'politically exposed persons' who are suspected of involvement in serious crime.
Ministers claimed that they didn't have the power to pursue a UWO even if they wanted to, a point that was contradicted by legal advice sought by campaign group Avaaz which showed that the First Minister could request one.
The Scottish Government refused the calls. I even brought a motion in 2021 urging ministers to seek one, which saw the SNP and Tories forming an unlikely alliance in voting it down.
Unfortunately my suspicions were well founded. When the New York State Supreme Court found Donald Trump guilty of civil fraud, it included findings that he had falsely inflated the value of assets, including his Scottish golf course.
It meant that we now have indisputable and independent evidence in the public domain that Trump's business dealings, including those in Scotland, were linked to fraud. So why won't the Scottish Government confirm if he is being investigated?
At long last it seems that he is finally being held to account by the legal system in the US, albeit with the power of the White House to shield him.
Yet, even while the wheels in the US are slowly turning, Scotland's Civil Recovery Unit has only gone as far as providing the same comment that they have done since 2021, saying that they cannot 'confirm or deny' whether an investigation has commenced.
Stringing out this position is no longer tenable. Following the rulings in New York, there is now urgent public interest in what action is being taken to investigate Trump's business dealings in Scotland.
(Image: Allen Eyestone, Allen Eyestone / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images)
For years, ministers have hidden behind officials and said that they cannot confirm or deny whether Trump is under investigation. In that same length of time, an investigation and a court case have now taken place in New York.
Nobody can be above the law. It's a core principle of any legal system that everyone be treated equally, regardless of how rich or powerful they are. If we are to have a credible system then anyone who may have broken the law must be held to account.
Donald Trump is a profoundly dangerous man and has shown himself to be utterly dishonest.
Every day there is a new mistruth or a lie. From petty claims about the size of the crowds at his rallies to major geopolitical issues, he has proven himself to be completely untrustworthy.
There is no doubt that the US president feels an affinity for Scotland, and that he regards his Scottish interests as prized possessions in his global business empire.
He clearly wants to expand his family's footprint here, and has a new golf course set to open in the months ahead, with speculation that he will attend the opening.
It's no secret that the Scottish Greens are dismayed about the way that the Scottish and UK governments have responded to Donald Trump's re-election. We will never support cosy phone calls and meetings to discuss 'mutual interests', and we don't believe that he should be greeted with the trappings of a state visit.
But the call for a UWO is not about his shocking and shameful record in office. It is about his basic integrity and about how our government responds to the wealthy and powerful. The New York courts have exposed a litany of concerns that need to be investigated and acted upon.
There is a clear and urgent need to get to the bottom of Trump's finances and the business he runs. It's long past time for the Scottish Government to demonstrate that Scotland is not a country where anyone with the money can buy whatever land and property they want, no questions asked.
