{"id":948178,"date":"2026-05-09T11:21:18","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T11:21:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/948178\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T11:21:18","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T11:21:18","slug":"trump-congratulates-good-man-swinney-on-election-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/948178\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump congratulates \u2018good man\u2019 Swinney on election win"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Your support helps us to tell the story<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-1uza6dc-0 iOIawn\">From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it&#8217;s investigating the financials of Elon Musk&#8217;s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, &#8216;The A Word&#8217;, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-1uza6dc-0 iOIawn\">At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.<\/p>\n<p class=\"sc-1uza6dc-0 iOIawn\">The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.<\/p>\n<p><strong class=\"sc-1uza6dc-1 eRQajs\">Your support makes all the difference.<\/strong>Read more<\/p>\n<p>US president <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/donald-trump\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Donald Trump<\/a> has described <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/john-swinney\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">John Swinney<\/a> as a \u201cgood man\u201d as he congratulated him on his election win.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/snp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">SNP<\/a> will remain Scotland\u2019s largest party after winning 58 seats on Friday, a drop from the 64 MSPs elected for the party in 2021.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Swinney had set his goal at winning an overall majority at Holyrood, saying that would provide a renewed mandate for a push for Scottish independence.<\/p>\n<p>In a post on the Truth Social platform on Saturday, the US president said of Mr Swinney: \u201cHe is a good man, who worked very hard, along with the King and Queen of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/united-kingdom\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">United Kingdom<\/a>, with respect to Tariff relief for Great Scottish Whiskey \u2013 and deserves this Big Electoral Victory!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The First Minister had pushed hard for an end to Scotch whisky tariffs last year, with the president crediting him when the levies were eventually scrapped last month.<\/p>\n<p>The issue caused a wrangle between Mr Swinney and the UK Government over who should receive the credit for the scrapping of the tariffs.<\/p>\n<p>Scottish Labour also endured a torrid election, dropping from 22 seats in 2021 to 17, level with Reform UK in second place.<\/p>\n<p>But party leader Anas Sarwar remained defiant, telling journalists at his Glasgow count on Friday his party was \u201churting\u201d, adding; \u201cWe advocate for change, we didn\u2019t win that argument, but it\u2019s my job to hold us together and that\u2019s a job I intend to do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Scottish Greens, meanwhile, increased their MSP count to a record high of 15, including their first two wins in local constituencies, with former co-leader Lorna Slater unseating the SNP\u2019s Culture Secretary Angus Robertson in the day\u2019s biggest scalp.<\/p>\n<p>The party\u2019s new MSP for Glasgow Southside \u2013 the seat held by former first minister Nicola Sturgeon for 15 years \u2013 Holly Bruce, said the wins showed the Greens were no longer a \u201cwasted vote\u201d in local seats.<\/p>\n<p>The Scottish Tories dropped from second place to fourth with 12 seats, while the Lib Dems increased their tally to 10 MSPs.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking after winning a mandate to be returned as First Minister, Mr Swinney said the relationship between the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.independent.co.uk\/topic\/scottish-government\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Scottish Government<\/a> and UK Government had \u201csoured\u201d over recent months.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019d like to enjoy a more co-operative relationship with the United Kingdom Government,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Adding that Labour had \u201cjust been hammered in Scotland\u201d,\u00a0Mr Swinney said: \u201cI hope that lesson is learned in Downing Street that there\u2019s now got to be respect for the Scottish Government exercised by the UK Government.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He continued: \u201cMy message to Downing Street tonight is very, very clear \u2013 they have got a lot of listening to do to the fact that Labour have been hammered here in Scotland and an SNP Government, after 19 years in office, has just been emphatically returned to office, and Scotland needs respect as a consequence of that election outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":948179,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4],"tags":[748,393,4884,1144,712,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-948178","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-uk","8":"category-united-kingdom","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-england","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-northern-ireland","13":"tag-scotland","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom","16":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948178","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=948178"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/948178\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/948179"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=948178"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=948178"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=948178"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}