SHOULD the Scottish Labour leader be cosying up to Donald Trump?
Well, he certainly seems to be trying to. In a column for The Times on Saturday, Anas Sarwar said the Scottish Government should embrace business with Donald Trump “regardless of what people think of his politics”.
The Labour MSP then went on to cite Trump International, the US president’s family’s organisation, and its golf courses in Ayrshire and Aberdeenshire as the type of investment he would like to see more of in Scotland.
It comes after Sarwar recently met with Eric Trump, who is the CEO of the firm.
You get the sense in these interventions, and his overproduced social media output (below) during his visit to New York for Tartan Week, that the Scottish Labour leader is increasingly attempting to portray himself as the international statesman.
Here’s why I’m in the US this week 👇🏼 pic.twitter.com/adHGDyzPCx
— Anas Sarwar (@AnasSarwar) April 3, 2025
And he is of course pitching himself as Scotland’s next first minister ahead of the 2026 Holyrood election. As you’d expect him to do.
But he’s certainly not going to get there by aligning himself with Trump, who he once called a “racist”.
Scottish Labour’s announcement of an Elon Musk-style DOGE department went down like a lead balloon, for example.
And while he seemed to backtrack a little in his column for The Daily Record today – which was remarkably similar to The Times article but with no mention of Trump – he still shared it on Twitter/X and called himself a “dealmaker”, a term often attributed to the US president.
Anything to do with Trump is deeply unpopular with Scots – more than 70% have an unfavourable view according to a recent poll. With the global stock market crashing after his tariff announcement, I can’t imagine that will have changed for the better.
You can sense a bit of panic in the Scottish Labour ranks over the rise of Reform UK, with early indications Nigel Farage’s party is pinching the voters that helped Scottish Labour to success at July’s General Election.
But even Reform UK voters have an unfavourable view of Trump nowadays, according to a YouGov poll.
Backing Trump’s businesses won’t be seen in a morally positive light either.
Sarwar has marked himself out in the past – although, less of late – as a politician that has taken a stronger more principled stance on Israel’s war on Gaza than many of his party colleagues.
Just a few weeks after October 7, he accused Israel of a "clear breach" of international law in Gaza after they withheld aid. The current Labour Government is still dragging its heels on that one.
But now he is helping to promote the business of a man who endorsed the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians and said the US would “take over” Gaza and “own it”.
Politicians and commentators have made much of Trump’s Scottish heritage and how it could be exploited for Scotland’s economic benefit. But I’m doubtful.
Yes, Joe Biden was very vocal about his Irish heritage in his visits to Ireland during his presidency and St Paddy’s day celebrations every year.
But where was Trump during Tartan Week? Playing golf at the Trump International Golf Club in Florida after he crashed the global stock market.
Scottish politicians are wasting a lot of breath on Donald Trump and his businesses. I doubt he thinks of them at all.
