THIS week the world news has focused its attention on Trump and his policy of separating children from their families and putting them into camps, simply because they are trying to emigrate to the USA. The stark reality of this policy has made waves across the country, as even the most ardent Republicans don’t want another Guantanamo Bay problem.

What is interesting here from Scotland’s point of view is how little anyone knew about this policy until three camps were already holding children and a fourth was in the pipeline. The media is spending so much time focusing on what Trump is doing that his team are using the wrecking ball in the background without anyone noticing. This is a problem on both sides of the pond, as the Tories are trying to play by the same rules covering up the worst parts of Brexit.

If a political party wanted to get things done, without having to worry so much about scrutiny, then someone like Trump is the perfect vehicle. Trump is a textbook sociopath: always looking for attention, lousy with money, doesn’t care about anyone else and repeatedly tells a story that says otherwise.

His entire life has been one big vanity project. This is why the Republican party love him, because his actions on social media and the printed media cause enough attention that they can do anything and everything they want, knowing that what Trump said is always going to be perceived to be much worse.

He “owns” golf courses and hotels, customer-facing businesses which rely on the popularity of people using them. Every one that enters one of his businesses, or interacts with him online, bolsters his ego. We’re all guilty of falling into his trap one way or another. Have you seen how many “people” follow him on Twitter?

On Wednesday Trump had a rally in Duluth, in the northern part of the US state of Minnesota, a town surrounded by a rural region that unsurprisingly voted for him because he was representing the Republican party. A Twitter post from one of Trump’s fans stated that Minnesotans were buying up tickets with the sole intention of not showing up and leaving him talking to a largely empty stadium.

An empty stadium does not help with boosting anyone’s ego. The recent concert from the Labour Party is testament to that. The media portraying Prince Harry’s visit to Edinburgh Castle last February with a packed crowd was necessary to deflect the true imagery that said otherwise. So I ask why some parts of the Yes movement find it appropriate to try to organise a large rally to protest against Trump during his visit to Scotland in mid July. Trump will only see this from afar, and will simply equate the sheer size of it to his self-importance. It won’t accomplish what we would like and will be a waste of everyone’s time, effort and money.

What if Scotland simply ignored him, completely? Put yourself in Trump’s throne. Being treated like a normal human being would be the worst thing that could possibly happen. That’s the protest that Minnesota just wised up to. Scotland must now follow their example.

Dean Woodhouse
West Linton

THE Western “civilised” world states who have, over decades, interfered in the governance of Arab and third-world countries are now reaping the consequences of such actions.

The leaders of said Western States who positively support their arms (defence) industries which provide weapons of war to such countries are actively involved in creating this awful mess.

The likes of May and her Tory party and Trump and his Republican party are four square behind such arms sales. They are complicit in the death and destruction caused as a result of these actions from which the refugees are fleeing. It is a terrible cruelty that May and Trump are so adamant that they will actively “discourage” these same fleeing refugees from their war-torn countries from seeking safety in the UK and America.

They do not want to be confronted by the results of their actions in their own back yards.

Douglas Stanley
Ayr