ALEX Salmond has called for controversial US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump to pull out of Turnberry.
The SNP MP renewed his long-running spat with the tycoon in the first of his weekly radio phone-in shows on a London station.
Last week Mr Trump threatened to pull £700 million worth of investment from Scotland if he was to be barred from the UK over his calls for Muslims to be banned from America.
Mr Salmond told listeners on LBC that Mr Trump had overstated the scale of his investments, adding: “It would be a better thing for Scotland if it wasn’t Trump Turnberry. I’d like it to go back to just being Turnberry golf course.”
With the Royal and Ancient Golf Club reportedly considering dropping the South Ayrshire course as a possible 2020 Open venue in light of Mr Trump’s recent remarks, Mr Salmond added: “As long as Donald Trump owns Turnberry I think it’s impossible for the Royal & Ancient to take the Open there, and every time they don’t that costs Scotland and Turnberry £100 million.”
Mr Salmond said told the programme that Home Secretary Theresa May should judge his case on the same criteria as anyone else after a petition called for Mr Trump to be barred from entering the UK.
He said: “It’s a very fair point for people to say, ‘well, just because somebody’s a presidential candidate, are they allowed to say things which would be unacceptable if they were being made by a hate preacher’, which I suspect is why half a million folk have signed the petition.
“She should judge Donald Trump on exactly the same criteria as she would judge anyone else.”
Asked about a suggestion from Prime Minister David Cameron that the European Union referendum may be held in June, Mr Salmond said it was “not right and not fair” for it to be held so close to the devolved elections. He said: “The Commons has already told the Prime Minister he can’t have it on the same day, it should also tell him you have to have at least a six-week gap before you have the EU referendum.”
Meanwhile, the US ambassador to Britain Matthew Barzun last night said that Mr Trump’s Muslim ban was “unconstitutional, un-American and just plain wrong”.
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