It has been revealed that Peter Mandelson urged John Swinney to play on Donald Trump’s Scottish roots to help secure a good UK trade deal. Herald columnist Rosemary Goring asks why the old country is held in such affection by many Americans.

Even dragons, it is said, have a weak spot. In The Hobbit, when Bilbo Baggins crept into Smaug’s lair, he noticed a small unprotected spot on the dragon’s breast, “as bare as a snail out of its shell”. Knowing where he was vulnerable to attack gave Bilbo and his allies a priceless advantage, which they put to good use.

In the case of Donald Trump, who bears many similarities to the fire-breathing, treasure-hoarding, egocentric and self-satisfied Smaug, the soft spot in his armoury is his Scottish ancestry. Mention his Gaelic-speaking mother, Mary Anne MacLeod, who came from the Isle of Lewis, and he is liable to grow dewy-eyed, taking on the demeanour of a man who hears the distant sound of bagpipes playing the Skye boat song.

It was Peter Mandelson, when he was the UK’s ambassador to the US, who sought to exploit this chink in the president’s armour. Shortly before Trump was due to visit Scotland last summer for the opening of The MacLeod, his new Aberdeenshire golf course, Mandelson had a video call with First Minister John Swinney. During that conversation, a transcript of which has recently been released, Mandelson stressed how crucial it was that Scotland engage with the US, and the American president in particular, to help reach key UK trade goals, including on whisky.

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