A BITTER row has broken out over a documentary film on the building of Donald Trump's controversial new £750 million golf course and resort near Aberdeen.

The film – You’ve Been Trumped, by Montrose-based film director Anthony Baxter – had its UK premiere at a film documentary festival in Sheffield last night, having already been shown in Toronto. It will be screened in Aberdeen next Friday and New York and Edinburgh in July.

The film, which includes footage of Baxter’s arrest, is very critical of the behaviour of the Trump organisation, the economic and environmental planning of the golf course, Scottish reaction to it and Grampian Police’s apparent determination to defend Trump’s interests. The film’s synopsis describes it as a David and Goliath story.

After the Scottish Government overturns its own environmental laws to give Trump the green light, its makers claim, the stage is set for an

extraordinary summer of discontent, as the bulldozers spring into action. 

“Water and power is cut off, land disputes erupt, and some residents have thousands of tonnes of earth piled up next to their homes,” the storyline runs.

“Complaints go ignored by the police, who instead arrest the film’s director, Anthony Baxter. Local exasperation comes to a surreal head as the now ‘Dr’ Trump scoops up an honorary doctorate from a local university, even as his tractors turn wild, untouched dunes into fairways.”

Ahead of its Scotland screening, Baxter last night accused the American billionaire and those working for him of harassing residents and riding roughshod over opposition to his plans for the golf course, 950 holiday apartments and 500 houses.

Asked for a comment on the film, the Trump Organisation UK issued a statement: “Anthony Baxter did not have the decency to send us a copy so we have not seen the documentary and therefore cannot comment on the content.

“Baxter has no credibility and from what we have seen the film has been widely regarded as a failure. We deal with national and international reporters and film-makers on a regular basis who handle themselves with professionalism and integrity. Baxter has neither attributes – he is a fraud and this film is a poor attempt at making money off the Trump name.”

Baxter said yesterday: “The film has just received a standing ovation at the biggest documentary film festival in the UK. Meanwhile, virtually every review has been favourable. As to my credibility, this is from a man who was questioning the American citizenship of Barack Obama, the President of the United States of America.”

But Baxter said he was particularly concerned by the role of Grampian Police. Within half-an-hour of interviewing one of Trump’s employees he claims he was put up against a car, handcuffed, taken away, had DNA and fingerprints taken and equipment and footage confiscated.

“After all this I am supposed to think the police are impartial. I call on them to make an apology.”

He said if they didn’t he would consider lodging a formal complaint. “Grampian Police must learn something from this episode.”

Last night, Grampian police issued a statement saying they had been called to the Menie Estate last July following a complaint of breach of the peace. “As the allegations were corroborated by independent witnesses, two men were detained by officers and subsequently, after careful consideration of the facts, given Formal Adult Warnings in connection with the incident.

“One was reported to the procurator fiscal who decided against proceeding, so the formal warning was rescinded for the second man. These decisions were communicated to both men at the time and neither raised any complaint with Grampian Police regarding the manner in which the allegations against them were investigated and subsequently dealt with.”