Donald Trump’s second inauguration is a “dark day”, the Scottish Greens have warned.
Lorna Slater, the party’s co-leader, described the US president-elect as “a clear and present danger to our climate and to human rights around the world.”
The MSP insisted the New Yorker represented “the exact opposite of everything that Scotland should stand for.” Trump will be sworn in to his second term in the White House on Monday, eight years after he first took the oath of office.
SNP First Minister John Swinney has said that he will meet Trump if he comes to Scotland, while Scottish Labour MP Torcuil Crichton has invited the American to his mother’s home island of Lewis.
Slater said: “This is a dark day. Donald Trump is a clear and present danger to our climate and to human rights around the world. The politics that he represents are the exact opposite of everything that Scotland should stand for.
“He was elected on a promise of mass deportations and attacks on the most marginalised people. The last time he was in office he introduced racist anti-Muslim laws and showed a total disregard for our environment and for reproductive rights.
“The US government has the power to wipe out poverty, and ensure every one of their citizens has access to free healthcare, good rewarding jobs and stability, but Donald Trump won’t do any of that.
“He has never stood up for normal people, and is firmly on the side of the billionaire class and the fossil fuel industry.
Slater added: “Our world can be a far fairer, greener and better place. We can end poverty and protect our planet from climate breakdown. There are millions of people across the US who will be concerned about what Donald Trump and his administration will do with their rights. Those are the people who we should be standing in solidarity with today.”
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