Is Welcoming Trump Pragmatism or Hypocrisy?

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00:0070% of Scots are holding an unfavourable view, and many figures as well.

00:05We've heard Ian Murray and John Swinney, as you said, in rightly so shifting tone.

00:09Now they're welcoming him to Scotland.

00:11Is this political pragmatism or hypocrisy that you see at play here?

00:15I think politicians and hypocrisy quite often go hand in hand.

00:19In this case, Donald Trump is an extremely powerful figure.

00:25He has business interests here.

00:27His tariffs can have a huge effect on Scottish interests, specifically around whisky, on UK interests.

00:34Keir Starmer has worked very hard on diplomacy to try and build relationships between the UK and the US.

00:41Donald Trump is very capricious.

00:43You never know from one day to the next what his opinions are going to be.

00:47And so I think it is important for the First Minister and for Ian Murray, who is the Scottish Secretary,

00:52to try and build those relationships and keep Donald Trump on side.

00:56But certainly they have both faced allegations of hypocrisy.

01:00And this is diplomatically very difficult for John Swinney, because he has been critical of Trump previously.

01:05And there are many opposition politicians in Scotland who believe that he should be giving Donald Trump the cold shoulder.