Donald Trump – Bald Reality

[Update at end of post]

The economist and commentator J K Galbraith on occasion passed severely adverse comment upon those out there on the right of the political spectrum. On one occasion he observed that “It is not the function of conservatives to care, and therefore they do not”. The sentiment could have been tailored to order for one conservative, Donald John Trump.

Vanity blowing in the wind

Trump is, as they say, not one to be backward in coming forward. He is wealthy and powerful, but more than likely not as wealthy and powerful as he would like to be, or would like to be thought to be. He is staggeringly vain, to the extent of combing his hair forward to cover the inevitable progress of male pattern baldness. And, for him, good taste is an ever elusive concept.

This combination of bluster and bullying has now travelled across the North Atlantic to Scotland, where Trump has had a golf course built – in the teeth of opposition from the local population and their elected representatives – on the coastal dunes at Balmenie, north of Aberdeen. The development, on a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), went ahead after the personal intervention of Alex Salmond.

The First Minister of Scotland had made his call on the grounds that Trump’s development would create 6,000 new jobs locally. Well, the course has been completed – but only one of the two intended – and most of the jobs have yet to materialise. The luxury hotel, housing and holiday villas, along with a second golf course, remain a distant dream, the project having been indefinitely mothballed.

Into this sad tale has come film-maker Anthony Baxter, to make a documentary titled You’ve Been Trumped. This has revealed that Trump has tried to have nearby homes compulsorily purchased, only to claim later that he had nothing to do with the action, called a nearby working farm “a slum”, and had overseen a security regime more in keeping with being the dictator of somewhere deeply unstable.

But, despite being allowed to despoil an SSSI, leave his development way short of what he promised, and being permitted by the authorities to behave as if his new fiefdom is somehow above the law, The Donald is not happy, and has taken to Twitter to call his opponents “Morons”, and assert that their opposition has made his development “far more successful than anticipated”.

So perhaps Trump would like to tell just how many punters have stumped up for membership, or just a day’s green fees, at his new course. Or where all the rest of the development, and those jobs, have gone, instead of threatening the BBC with his lawyers for screening You’ve Been Trumped. Then he can give us all a laugh by going out in the Scottish breeze without hat or hairspray.

Donald Trump, wannabe star of The Credibility Apprentice – you’re fired.

[UPDATE 24 October 1020 hours: Trump has once again demonstrated his inability to keep to the facts by trying to conflate the showing of You've Been Trumped with the Savile business.

But, instead of showing his grasp of the situation, the king of the combover tells anyone who is interested that he is sounding off without engaging brain. If "the phones are ringing off the hook", then someone is not doing their job and the system for taking bookings at his golf course is not fit for purpose. There should be a phone queuing system and a facility to book online. Nobody should have to hear the dial tone repeatedly.

Then he tells his Twitter followers that a BBC boss "was just fired". The Corporation has not fired anyone, and Trump might bear in mind that the Beeb is the UK's conduit for The Apprentice franchise.

And not everyone agrees with the great man: Andy Lynes reminded him of the kind of reaction that many viewers had to Anthony Baxter's documentary. Trump ought to put some effort into tomorrow evening's appearance with David Letterman on the Late Show, which could be rather good, but not for him]