The case against President Donald Trump is lengthy. In this second term in office, he is wreaking havoc on a global scale, primarily economically but, to some degree environmentally and also militarily.

As he flies into Scotland today for a five-day visit, we still fail to understand why President Trump was freely and emphatically elected in the world’s most important democracy. We like to portray the global trend he leads as one which plays on fear and, to a large degree, we’re right. However, one man’s fear is another man’s hope, and we wilfully fail to understand that.

Hope that you’ll benefit from cheap energy when the government drills, baby, drills rather than building wind turbines. Hope that when your daughter tries out for the track team she won’t have to compete against someone who was born a boy. But first and foremost hope that the factory down the road will reopen and that you will get a job there rather than the job going to the foreigner who arrived yesterday.

This is America First, the midwife of global economic uncertainty, including in Scotland, a nation with major export interests in the US and therefore with much to lose from a punitive tariff regime.

Read more by Andy Maciver

America First is also the midwife of global security uncertainty. President Trump’s desire to retrench from global military engagement is, in essence, leaving various geopolitical fields of play to bad actors. President Putin wants to recover Russia’s historical position as the biggest global player in eastern Europe and western Asia, and America’s on-off willingness to let that happen is destabilising Nato, Europe and particularly........

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