You've Been Trumped

Neither this film nor Local Hero were filmed in Aberdeen. The disputed land is north of Aberdeen and Local Hero was filmed in Pennan, a good deal further north. Being a local boy I am perhaps a little biased but I found the film to be a very articulate and balanced portrait of a disgraceful and sordid state of affairs. Trump is a bully, that is no surprise, but the way the Scottish government cowed before him was nauseating. Alex Salmond - for shame. I also think this review says nothing about what an excellently made and often moving film this is. Wait a minute... Time Out, New York. Ah. I see... Comfortable in the Don's pocket Mr. Rothkopf?

I've recently watched this film on the BBC. It gives a visceral portrayal of the dehumanising words and actions of Donald Trump and his cohorts towards the people of north east Scotland whose homes and lives are being so affected by his development. In terms of this review it is not accurate for the reviewer to say that the documentary "never stops for a second to seriously explore the economic point of view". An economic critique of the golf course project was put forward in the film by an academic at the London School of Economics, while arguments in favour of the golf course were put forward on camera by both Alex Salmond, the First Minister of Scotland, and also by the head of Robert Gordon University's business school (who, when he sees the film, may very much wish he hadn't). Their arguments are, arguably, narrowly focussed and short term and so may be dismissed as not 'serious' - but that is a consequence of their proponents' shortcomings, not the filmmaker's. These economic analyses of how "the project might benefit the community" also tend to overlook the serious environmental implications of the project - both in terms of the destruction of a protected habitat and in terms of the kind of environmentally costly economic activity the project is designed to generate - transatlantic golf tourism. This weakness in the project's environmental argument may help to explain the glib, deceitful and manipulative statement made by Mr Trump on the 'support' he said the project had been given by environmental groups - in fact the project was opposed by the Scottish Government's environmental and natural heritage regulators, as well as by the RSPB and SWT, two of the country's biggest environmental conservation groups. Another correction to the review is that the 'comely' woman that Mr Trump was 'ogling' was not 'local'. She was from Glasgow, which is well over a hundred miles from the proposed golf course and she was at the golf course party because had won the beauty pageant 'Miss Scotland'. In fact, Mr Trump went further than ogling her: it would be more accurate to say that on meeting her he immediately 'pursued' her. The psychologically interesting part of this pursuit was that his immediate intent appeared not to be to pursue her sexually, but to seek to 'buy' her services - as the reviewer notes, Mr Trump immediately suggested that his corporation should employ her. It seems that a sexual conquest was, or is, not Mr Trump's priority. His behaviour towards 'Miss Scotland' would suggest, rather, that it is important to him to 'own' that which he considers to be beautiful, whether the beauty he encounters exists in a thing or a in person. This behaviour may be of interest to students of the theory of 'necrophilia' as put forward by the psychologist Erich Fromm. However, according to the film, his 'ownership' interests in people went beyond 'Miss Scotland'. Michael Forbes, the farmer that Mr Trump defamed with his comments about his farm, reported that Mr Trump, on meeting him, had immediately made him the same offer as he made to Miss Scotland: Mr Forbes claimed that Mr Trump repeatedly offered him a job. It seems Mr Trump wanted to own him too, though, given his comments about Mr Forbes and his farm, Mr Trump is unlikely to have been impressed by Mr Forbes' beauty - more likely he just wanted to buy him off. However, when it became clear that Mr Forbes was not for sale and the financial wooing was being rejected, Mr Trump began to defame Mr Forbes. It is possible that the behaviour of Mr Trump in this film will be of interest to those who are familiar with Fromm's work on malignant narcissism and the Hare Psycopathy Checklist. It certainly offers a useful lesson in the irrational behaviours that face those who seek to mitigate the harmful social and ecological effects of the promoters of unconstrained and unselfaware capitalist development.

Economic point of view? Alex Sammond needs to fund his independence war chest.. How else is he going to be able to call himself king/prime minster/president/sheik/ whatever of Scotland? quick sell the family jewels to a complete plonker.... and sack the local councillors who complain..