“You would think that you would live forever….at the same time, they have a hard life economically. You know, there’s not great economics there.”
Donald Trump(Image: Getty Images)
Donald Trump has lamented low life expectancy in the east end of Glasgow on a poor economy and insisted North Sea could make Scotland rich.
The President blamed wind farms for “destroying the country” while the “greatest oil and gas fields in the world” are not being used.
In response to reports average life expectancy in parts of Glasgow is just 57, Trump said: “You would think it would be the opposite. It’s so beautiful. The air is so good.
“You would think that you would live forever….at the same time, they have a hard life economically. You know, there’s not great economics there.”
The towers of the Wyndford Estate in Glasgow
Derelict housing in the Easterhouse area
Trump suggested Scotland’s natural resources rival Norway where the energy industry is the main economic driver and living standards are among the highest in the world.
He added: “Your country has the North Sea. It’s one of the greatest energy fields in the world.
“You have this huge asset sitting there and you’re destroying your country with windmills all over the place. I mean, I fly over Scotland and I fly over parts of the UK in a helicopter a lot.
“And I’m looking down and I see these gorgeous fields being destroyed by windmills, the most expensive energy you can get.
“You lose millions of dollars because they don’t make money, they lose money. You’re supposed to make money with energy. And you have, boy, do you have an asset.
“If they would open up the North Sea again, you could open it up and in split seconds. Every oil company would want it.
“Look at Norway as an example. Norway is a very rich country. They have the North Sea too, they say you have the best part of it.
“You have beautiful, clean, really incredible oil and gas, and it’s sitting there and it saddens me. I look and I see the value that is being wasted in this country, it’s so sad.
“You’re sitting there with the greatest oil fields in the world, and you’re not using it.”
Sean Connery and Donald Trump are at the Synod House at St. John the Divine Cathedral Garden
Trump also doubled down on disputed claims an intervention from Sean Connery helped him get planning permission “in two minutes” for his controversial Scottish golf course.
The US President called the late movie star the “greatest zoning lawyer in the world” after he allegedly stepped in to pave the way for the development in 2007.
He said: “Sean Connery was sort of a friend of mine, he was a great guy. I used to sometimes call him the King.
“I spent years getting zoning in Aberdeen I was having a hard time getting the zoning. I was into it for maybe three or four years.
“And Sean Connery was in Scotland and he said, let the bloody bloke build his bloody golf courses. He’s an American. He wants to invest money in Scotland.
“Did you know that after he did that I got my approvals in like two minutes.
“I said, you’re the greatest zoning lawyer in the world. My zoning lawyers can’t do anything.”
The president’s mum Mary Anne MacLeod, was born and brought up on the Hebridean island of Lewis before emigrated to New York.
(Image: AP)
Trump added: “I’m originally from Scotland…between Scotland and Germany, a German father and a Scottish mother. And a great mother, by the way. I have to tell you. Great father, great mother.
“So I have a little prejudice toward Europe in those two places.”
The President has said he will take legal action against the BBC over how a speech was edited by Panorama, after the corporation apologised but refused to compensate him.
Speaking to reporters on board Air Force One on Friday evening, Trump said: “We’ll sue them for anywhere between one billion dollars and five billion dollars probably sometime next week.”
On Thursday, the BBC said the edit of the 2021 speech had unintentionally given “the mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action” and said it would not be broadcast again.
However the corporation apologised to the president but said it would not pay financial compensation.
Trump is expected to discuss the issue with Prime Minister Keir Starmer over the weekend.
Controversy around how Trump’s speech was edited has led to the resignations of BBC director general Tim Davie and head of news Deborah Turness.