Alex Salmond reacts to Donald Trump's inaugural address

ALEX Salmond reacted to Donald Trump's inaugural address by saying that it may now be a case of 'may God Bless America and may God help the rest of us'.

Former First Minister Alex Salmond said that Donald Trump has a character problem. Picture: Brian Lawless/PA Wire

Speaking in a video to the BBC after the inaugural address, Mr Salmond said of the speech: “It was shorter, angrier - it was campaign rhetoric. There was much less than I expected of reaching out to all the Americans who didn’t vote for him.

“There was a lot of God it, even by inauguration standards, for someone who’s found religion comparatively recently.

“So maybe it’s a case of may God bless America, and may God help the rest of us.”

The former Scottish first minister, who clashed with Mr Trump over a wind power project near the tycoon’s golf club, had said earlier today that the incoming president had a “character problem” but that he hoped the responsibilities of office would mellow Mr Trump’s divisive rhetoric.

“The problem with Donald, of course, is a character problem. It’s what happens when somebody disagrees with him or somebody says no to him.”

He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme “the awesome power of the United States presidential office can change a person and we will just have to cross our fingers and hope that that’s the case”.

During a lobbying campaign, Mr Trump voiced his concerns to the Scottish government about the wind power development, complaining it would spoil the view from his golf resort at the Menie estate on the Aberdeenshire coast.

In a series of colourfully-written letters in 2011 and 2012 Mr Trump warned about the impact “monstrous” wind turbines would have, and told the former SNP leader the “insanity” of the project would bankrupt Scotland.

He told Mr Salmond he would be known as “Mad Alex - the man who destroyed Scotland” if he went ahead with the plan.