Few of us will miss billionaire buffoon Trump

American Tycoon Donald Trump’s time in Scotland has been more hassle than it’s been worth.

Is it a bird, is it a plane is it a flying bird’s nest?

No it’s The Donald, fleeing Scotland together with his golf clubs, investment dollars, bouffant hairdo and “my way or the highway” attitude. So should we celebrate or mourn the passing of the man and his investment millions?

There’s been no love lost between the US-based property magnate and campaigners since he persuaded Aberdeenshire Council to suspend the rules and let him build the “world’s greatest links course” amidst a SSSI protected dune system on Menie Sands.

The course opened in 2012, won accolades and started making money. But in November, Trump’s lawyers went to court opposing an 11-turbine European Offshore Wind Test Centre because it would wreck views from the luxury course. Last week a judge rejected that legal bid.

Within minutes, The Donald started chucking his toys oot the pram. He withdrew a planning application to build a second golf course. He announced all his investment and energy would now focus on his newly acquired golf resort at Doonbeg on Ireland’s west coast.

And he stated wind farms in Scotland were as big a disaster as the Lockerbie tragedy in which 270 people died. Crass, clumsy and controversial to the end, The Donald won’t be missed by most Scots.

But what about his investments? Should Scots worry that a Big Shot is heading west shouting that Scotland is somehow “closed for business”?

Not on your nelly.

I realise folk in the north-east will be worried. The billionaire tycoon has lost interest halfway through a promised development there’s still no sign of the proposed 450-bedroom luxury hotel, conference facilities or residential housing at the resort.

But what’s more important for the Aberdeenshire economy the wobbly promise of yet another controversial Trump golf resort or the certainty that offshore renewable energy is Scotland’s future? And what’s better for north-east folk? Keeping Trump sweet or supporting the local people who’ve been hurt, ignored, insulted and offended since The Donald’s swaggering bandwagon rolled into town?

Film-maker Anthony Baxter knows the answers. He re-mortgaged his house to finance You’ve Been Trumped a film documenting the experience of locals like thrawn Michael Forbes who refused to sell up and move out of Trump’s way.

The billionaire must have realised he’d lost the war for hearts and minds in Scotland when the public voted Forbes Scot of the Year in the 2012 Glenfiddich Spirit of Scotland Awards.

So what will the economic fall-out be if Trump turns his back on Scotland?

Many have long doubted his capacity to complete the house-building part of the project since the recession in 2008. Some local suppliers have waited years for payment.

Meanwhile, investment can now go ahead in renewable energy. The Offshore Wind Test Centre will help reduce the need for onshore wind farms, companies will pay to use the test facilities, jobs will be created and Aberdeenshire will become a world leader in Offshore Wind technology.

Everyone bar one man has backed this project in the north-east and now he’s offski. Trump’s people say he will continue to “protect” his existing Scottish investment. I’m sure he will.

But do we need a public figure who maintains climate change is a communist conspiracy, President Obama’s ambitious health care programme is “an abysmal failure” and thinks he might win the race to become the next New York mayor?

Poor Donald. Recent polls suggest he’d be trumped by Andrew Cuomo. Scots get so few billionaire buffoons it’s no wonder we were mesmerised.

But that’s over now and thank goodness for it. Watch out, County Clare.