At Least The Scots Aren't Delusional

When Donald Trump returned from Scotland after speaking at his failure of a golf course, Steve M. concluded

Over and over and over again. I'm sorry, but that's all some voters want to hear. They don't want to hear a well-informed candidate make anunemotional statement of concern combined with reassurance. They think people who make statments like that in situations like this are the people who've ruined everything in the world.

I'm not saying that the people who responded well to Trump are a majority of American voters. I'm just saying that if you like the sort of thing Trump regularly does, then you probably liked what he did yesterday. If not, not. 

And if you're like a lot of American voters, you don't care much about what happens in Europe, which may give them half a leg up on Americans who knew nothing of the European Union. It has been that way quite a few years now since "freedom fries" were such a sensation and distaste for Europe became all the rage.

Trump's visit to Scotland and his remarks there will have no impact. That's a shame, of course., and not only because he neatly encapsulated his priorities when he declared "When the pound goes down, more people are coming to Turnberry."

We can be thankful, though, that Trump had tweeted "Just arrived in Scotland. Place is going wild over the vote. They took their country back, just like we will take America back. No games!"  That gave rise to some interesting retorts, the best of which was from Barstool Sports:

Slight problem with that: Scotland voted to remain. They voted to remain rather overwhelmingly, with 63% voting to stay in the EU and 36% voting to leave. Saying that country is going wild over taking their country back is like saying America went wild after electing Mitt Romney in 2012. That’s not what the country voted to do.

The conclusion "But, things like facts have never stopped Trump from firing off a tweet or delivering a statement" may summarize the candidate as well as anything has.  To a question about the possibility of Scotland separating from the United Kingdom, the candidate responded in part

People want to take their country back. They want to have independence, in a sense, and you see it with Europe, all over Europe. You're going to have more than just — in my opinion, more than what happened last night, you're going to have, I think many other cases where they want to take their borders back. They want to take their monetary back.







To take their monetary back?   Trump was referring to the monetary policy- assuming he event meant policy- of a nation which has its own currency, given that the British never gave up the pound sterling for the euro and thus retained its own monetary policy. Presumably, Trump merely got all caught up in his excitement over borders and excluding immigrants and refugees. Presumably.

The British exit may not in and of itself prove disastrous. However, there already are secessionist rumblings from the French and the Dutch, motivated by their own far-right politicians. Were a couple of more countries to exit, the European idea of unity and tolerance across borders probably would be on its death bed, not unlike the American ideal of tolerance and acceptance if you-know-who is elected.










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