OVER the last few days culminating in media interviews today (July 12) I have listened to the most ridiculous, ill informed and totally inaccurate comments about the President of the United States.

These people who will no doubt be out demonstrating would be better employed sharpening their critical faculties. Then they might realise that all they are doing is regurgitating the stories printed and broadcast. often with zero evidence, by the liberal US media. The same US media which was totally uncritical of President Obama but now thinks nothing of printing a story and then apologising for its inaccuracy a few days later. Even national papers like the Washington Post were caught printing false or inaccurate stories about Mr Trump.

I do not know Mr Trump but over the years I have met several very rich and powerful men and here's a shock. They were not all loveable.

When Hillary Clinton lost the 2016 presidential election it had two effects. In this country too many politicians had fallen for the Clinton propaganda and set about blaming Mr Trump for their loss. However in the US Clinton retained her main dirty tricks strategist and he has continued to sow division and baseless stories. In the past the US voters used to accept the result of an election and then pull together. However since 2016 both Mr Obama and Mrs Clinton have done everything they can to divide the American voters.

I am totally in favour of free speech and the right to demonstrate but surely it is incumbent upon us all to at least know the facts rather than what we would like to be the facts.

David Stubley,

22 Templeton Crescent, Prestwick.

I AM disturbed by the prospect of what appears to be a hate campaign directed at the impending visit of the President of the United States to our country. I have always been proud of our Scottish, and indeed British, hospitality. I can only see it being tarnished if the threats I read about are half true. That they are supported and encouraged by some of our politicians is deplorable.

You don't need to like him, but don't insult him and those of us who elected you, by shaming your country.

Donnie MacKinnon,

38 Sandhaven, Dunoon.

PRESIDENT Trump in the last few days has met Nato chiefs and Prime Minister May. He visits Scotland before going on to meet President Putin.

What a glorious opportunity to forget trade wars and inadequate Nato defence spending and to encourage and facilitate the signing of the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. This was adopted at the UN in New York in July, 2017 and to date 58 member states have signed but not the US, Russia, the UK and other nuclear countries. There is no mention of this all important treaty in President Trump's published agenda.

Of equal significance, there is to be no meeting with Scotland's First Minister.

The Scottish Parliament's opposition to the Trident Base at Faslane, in particular, and the UK's arsenal of some 200 active and stored warheads, in general, will not be voiced and the UN Treaty on Prohibition will go unheeded.

In this respect the will of the Scottish Parliament has again been disregarded by Westminster.

John G Webster,

King's Cross, Isle of Arran.

SINCE Nicola Sturgeon had made it clear from the outset that she had no intention of meeting Donald Trump during his visit, I am at a loss to understand why anybody should interpret the fact that such a meeting will not take place as a “snub” to our First Minister. And as to Jill Stephenson’s notion (Letters, July 12) that it will be a blow to her self-esteem, I suggest to her that Ms Sturgeon’s self-esteem is unlikely to be affected by not meeting a man of whom she has made her low opinion abundantly clear. No doubt we will soon see David Mundell and Theresa May obsequiously shaking the Presidential hand, and feeling their own self-esteem greatly boosted by the process; but fortunately the First Minister has somewhat more courage and integrity than either of those two.

Derrick McClure,

4 Rosehill Terrace, Aberdeen.

PRESIDENT Trump, the leader of the most powerful country in the world. is roundly criticised for interfering in the internal affairs of Germany.

Nicola Sturgeon, the First Minister of an itsy-bitsy provincial "government", interferes in the internal affairs of Spain and not a word is said ("It is like something from Outlander, says Catalan leader on extradition fight", The Herald, July 12).

The First Minister thinks nothing of interfering in matters reserved to Westminster but if a UK minister had interfered so blatantly in a devolved matter there would have been the predictable cry of Westminster power grab, but, of course, hypocrisy is one of the prerequisites of a politician.

Charles Coull,

Manse Road, Cults, Aberdeen.

DONALD Trump's visit chimes with my long-held opinion that Nato should not be supported. This used to be because it was an unnecessary military threat or balance to the Soviet Union or China.

Now these countries are overtly and very successful examples of active capitalism. They compete with the United States for producing billionaires and an unequal model for society.

Nato has also always been a wasteful use of our productive resources when civil defence and resistance is both more effective and efficient.

Norman Lockhart,

Plora, Waverley Road, Innerleithen.

PERHAPS Scottish Secretary David Mundell could have a wee word with Donald Trump at their forthcoming meeting and advise the US President that if he heard his Scottish-born mother Mary Anne MacLeod proclaim “he opens his mooth and lets his belly rumble” that this was intended as condemnation and not instruction.

R Russell Smith,

96 Milton Road, Kilbirnie.

DEAR Donald,

Walls won't stop climate change.

Neill Simpson, 3 Lochmill, Milton of Campsie, East Dunbartonshire.

AS President he has made deals with Vladimir Putin despite international disapproval, lambasted his Nato allies, told Germans to reject Angela Merkel, appointed his son-in-law to an important government position, does not believe that women are equal to men, opposes minority rights, issued wide sweeping executive decrees bypassing the legislative body, attacked the press and has started to build a southern border wall. Why do we still support President Erdogan?

Tom Walker,

39 Fountain Place, Loanhead.