Will John Swinney's wooing of Donald Trump pay off?

The news that Donald Trump is visiting Scotland later this month has catapulted the SNP and John Swinney onto the high wire.

Mr Swinney will no doubt hope that his support for the American president’s political rival, Kamala Harris, will be forgotten over a glass of Irn Bru and a fresh Aberdeenshire buttery.

There will be a fine line to balance for the First Minister, who made no secret of his support for Ms Harris during the autumn of 2024.

Last October, Mr Swinney told reporters: “People in the United States of America should vote for Kamala Harris and I have not come to that conclusion only because Donald Trump is opposed to Scottish independence.”

And, in more recent times, Mr Swinney has suggested that the president’s state visit, scheduled for September, should be cancelled after Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy was booted from the Oval Office in March. 

John Swinney has agreed to meet with Donald Trump. Of course, Mr Trump, whose mother Mary MacLeod Trump was from the Isle of Lewis, has long cast his shadow over these isles. 

The billionaire, who once described Scots as “tough people” and “good fighters,” has clashed with politicians and locals for years, ever since he announced plans to build a golf course in Aberdeenshire two decades ago. 

Despite the objections of environmental campaigners and aggrieved residents, Trump International Golf Links opened near the town of Balmedie in 2012.

Mr Trump got on splendidly with the late Alex Salmond, that is, until he heard about a Scottish Government plan to build wind farms in the sea off his new estate.

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In 2012, he said: "You're going to have riots all over Scotland, because Alex Salmond is going to destroy the natural beauty of Scotland.”

Thirteen years later, the wind farms have been built, and no riots have taken place. 

Mr Swinney’s government is clearly taking a cautious approach when it comes to dealing with Mr Trump. Who could blame them?

Yet, the Scottish Greens have slammed Mr Swinney’s ‘tragic’ decision to meet with the American president, who they have accused of being a “political extremist".

Would Humza Yousaf have welcomed Mr Trump as FM? Their ire has been shared by others in Scotland’s progressive left. It’s not a coincidence that my most shared post on Bluesky, by far, was a news article announcing the meeting would take place.

One anonymous user, named ‘Apples n Spice,’ wrote: “Swinney doing more on-brand Swinney things. Embarrassing for Scotland. It's actually vomit inducing.”

Another user wrote: “Pretty sure Sturgeon would have been washing her hair that day and Yousaf would have flat out refused.”

That’s an interesting point.

It would have been great theatre to see how Nicola Sturgeon or Humza Yousaf, undoubtedly First Ministers with a bit more panache than Honest John, would have dealt with the situation.

Read more:

• Scottish Greens slam John Swinney's 'tragic' plans to meet with Donald Trump
• First Minister John Swinney to meet with Donald Trump during Scottish holiday
• Donald Trump expected to visit Scotland later this month

Protests aside, Mr Swinney is doing the grown-up thing. 

According to the Scottish Government, the United States is Scotland’s largest trade partner, importing £4bn of Scottish goods in 2023.

Around 700 American companies employ 115,000 people across the nation.

If the plan is to secure political points, the easy thing to do, as many in Mr Swinney’s base have suggested, is to reject the meeting. 

Yet, Mr Swinney has chosen a more difficult path, one which will require cool-headed diplomacy and a twist of Scottish hospitality. 

I wonder what they are going to talk about?