The sun is pressing through the low grey clouds above Turnberry beach in Ayrshire where Alan Ringrose is walking his dog. He shakes his head at the emerging news from across the Atlantic. “I think America’s gone mad,” he says.
“How can you elect a criminal as president?” Disbelief is his overriding emotion as the reality of a second Trump presidency sinks in. “I don’t get it. Perhaps people were afraid to elect a black woman?” Ringrose, who cares for the local bowling green in his retirement, gestures across the dunes to the terraced lawns of the five-star Trump Turnberry hotel.
It is one of two luxury golfing resorts owned by the president-elect in Scotland; the other is in Aberdeenshire. “He has done a lot for the area, but as a politician ..
.” Ringrose trails off. Further down the windswept beach, Elizabeth Cogan is taking her jack russell Molly for a stroll.
She is also quick to acknowledge the investment Trump has made in the local economy. But as a world leader? “It’s a total disaster: he’s a fascist, he’s against women, he’s homophobic, he’s racist. It is a shock because I thought people would have come to their senses and realised what kind of man he is.
“It’s difficult with politics, because you have to respect different opinions. But look how he divides people, the way he treats immigrants.” Of particular concern to Cogan are the billionaires with whom Trump surrounds himself, many of whom wield powerful influence, like Elon Mus.
