A GLASGOW nightclub owner has apologised for a "grave error in judgement" after suggesting Scotland should rollout a red carpet for Donald Trump.
Donald MacLeod, who owns The Garage and Cathouse in Glasgow, posted a column on substack titled "Make Scotland Great Again: Welcome Home Donald J Trump”.
Within the piece, he insisted the US President be given VIP treatment in Scotland in a bid to avoid tariffs on Scottish produce like whisky and salmon.
He slated senior figures in the UK Government, including Keir Starmer and Foreign Secretary David Lammy, accusing them of torpedoing the special relationship between the US and UK with anti-Trump comments.
Macleod wrote: "Our First Minister John Swinney and the Scottish Government should pledge to strengthen ties with America and do everything to protect these vital Scottish jobs and industries."
He added: "They should be rolling out the Trump Tartan (Macleod of Lewis) carpet, bequeathing him a Scottish state visit, which could include stars and stripes ticker-tape pipe band parade down the Royal Mile, inviting him to dinner with the King at Holyrood Palace.
"Allowing him to address the Scottish Parliament, granting him the freedom of the Western Isles, and naming a ferry after his mother Mary Macleod, who emigrated from Tong, near Stornoway, to New York in 1930."
The column was blasted by staff at The Cathouse.
CarrieAnn Crow, who runs Hellbent at the popular club, posted an open letter to the nightclub boss accusing him of betrayal.
MacLeod has now said he has been doing some “soul searching”, posting on Reddit that he had never meant to cause “so much hurt”.
“I have done a lot of soul searching over the past few very upsetting days and nights,” he said.
“I can’t rewind the clock, even if I wish I could, and know that I’ll still be damned if I do, damned if I don’t, by responding to your open letter.
“I had no idea, nor was it ever my intention when writing the Trump piece, that it would cause so much hurt to so many people, especially the wonderful LGBTQIA2S+, who form a major part of the overall Cathouse community and of course my fantastic but now upset Cathouse staff.
“And for that I can only offer my sincerest heartfelt apologies.
"It is clear that I was foolish for not carrying out some proper research before writing it, I was too quick to think to proclaim his second coming and celebrate his second coming and celebrate his brash and bombastic business approach, which I hoped with a little ego massaging, could benefit Scottish export business and jobs.”
He added: “I was in other words, a total a*se."
