People will be "very nervous" about what Donald Trump's presidency will mean but the responsibilities of the office could change his approach, Alex Salmond has said.
The former Scottish first minister, who clashed with Mr Trump over a wind power project near the tycoon's golf club, said the incoming president had a "character problem".
Mr Salmond said: "We will see which Donald Trump turns up at the inauguration - is it going to be the one who says he will bind America together or the one that rages on Twitter at three o'clock in the morning?
Read more: Donald Trump shunned by family as presidency fails to impress
"The problem with Donald, of course, is a character problem. It's what happens when somebody disagrees with him or somebody says no to him."
He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme "the awesome power of the United States presidential office can change a person and we will just have to cross our fingers and hope that that's the case".
He said "a lot of people will be very nervous" but he expected Mr Trump's inaugural address to be "a bit more substantial" than his Twitter outbursts.
Read more: Donald Trump shunned by family as presidency fails to impress
During a lobbying campaign, Mr Trump voiced his concerns to the Scottish government about the wind power development, complaining it would spoil the view from his golf resort at the Menie estate on the Aberdeenshire coast.
In a series of colourfully-written letters in 2011 and 2012 Mr Trump warned about the impact "monstrous" wind turbines would have, and told the former SNP leader the "insanity" of the project would bankrupt Scotland.
Read more: Donald Trump shunned by family as presidency fails to impress
He told Mr Salmond he would be known as "Mad Alex - the man who destroyed Scotland" if he went ahead with the plan.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel