NICOLA Sturgeon has hit out against the “bully boy” tactics being used by Donald Trump.
The former first minister was speaking at an event on leadership at Scotland’s Housing Festival on Tuesday, where she said that the US president was trying to “silence people”.
Sturgeon said: “We live in a word today where we see many examples of what I would describe as really bad leadership.
“Bully boy, alpha male leadership is upending the world we are living in today.
“For younger people, the role models they are looking to in leadership are not the role models we would like to see.”
She added: “If good people, with the right reasons for wanting to lead, look at the world we live in today and say, ‘Leadership’s a bit too tough, the environment is too toxic’ and decide to hold back or depart the scene, basically, it’s all the bad people that end up leading in every walk of life.
If that is allowed to happen, Sturgeon said “the future is not good”, adding that “good people need to come forward”.
Sturgeon’s comments came after Trump announced the US was suspending all military assistance to Ukraine.
We told how SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn took to social media platform Twitter/X following the announcement to ask why Keir Starmer believes “Trump is a reliable ally”.
Meanwhile, Scottish Greens co-leader Patrick Harvie told The National that the US had “betrayed” Ukraine.
More than 200 petitions have been launched to stop Trump’s visit to Scotland, after he was handed an invitation from the King during Starmer’s visit to the White House last week.
She said: “We all lived through George W Bush and the Iraq War.
“I’m not trying to be political here, but most people would have thought George W Bush wasn’t the best person that had ever occupied the White House at the time.
“But now that we’ve had the experience of Trump, you actually look back at George W. Bush and think: ‘Oh, wasn’t he good? I wish he’d come back.'”
Sturgeon also referred to Margaret Thatcher, saying she was one of the major reasons she got into politics.
She said: “The political experiences of prime ministers in recent times make people think of Margaret Thatcher with rose-tinted specs.
“She decimated communities, but she was what motivated me into politics because I hated everything she did.”
