PRESIDENT Donald Trump is a “nincompoop” whose opposition to Scottish independence might just “seal the deal” in favour of a Yes vote at the next referendum.

That was the verdict of former First Minister Alex Salmond after the US President, whose mother, Mary Anne MacLeod, hailed from Lewis, intervened in the ongoing independence debate with the astonishing claim that it would affect golf’s “British Open”.

Trump has made no secret of his desire to host The Open at Trump Turnberry, one of his two Scottish courses, though the Royal and Ancient Golf Club of St Andrews refused to allocate the tournament to the Ayrshire venue following Trump’s remarks on Muslims and Mexicans.

There was therefore some self-interest in his remarks to the Wall Street Journal: “Is Scotland going to go for the vote, by the way? It would be terrible. They just went through hell. They just went through hell.

“One little thing, what would they do with the British Open if they ever got out? They’d no longer have the British Open. Scotland. Keep it in Scotland.”

That brought a withering response from Salmond: “Donald Trump’s opposition to independence should seal the deal for the SNP – and to do it on the basis of Scotland losing the ‘British Open’ golf is typical.

The tournament is actually called The Open and the headquarters of the R&A are in St Andrews which, last time I checked, was in Scotland.

“The Grand Canyon is a minor crevice compared to the vast chasm of ignorance of that man. The President of the United States is a complete and utter nincompoop.”

Trump’s remarks caused a storm on social media. Author Irvine Welsh tweeted: “At last. An utterly irrefutable and totally compelling argument for #indyref2.”

SNP MSP James Dornan tweeted “woohoo” in a delighted reaction to the news.

Dornan later told BuzzFeed News: “Like many on the Yes side I’m delighted to see Trump’s statement that independence is bad, very bad, maybe the baddest thing ever to happen to that great country of England since the Boston Tea Party. Since being elected, President Trump seems to be on the wrong side of every major issue and this comment just highlights how out of touch with political reality he is.”

SNP MP Tommy Sheppard said: “It’s almost impossible to see how the cause of Scottish independence could be harmed by The Donald’s opposition to it. I expect this will encourage decent, thoughtful people to give it some consideration when they might not have done previously.”

SNP MSP Mark McDonald added on BuzzFeed: “I rather suspect, unlike when the UK Government begged Obama to intervene in the 2014 referendum, they would probably have begged Donald Trump to keep his opinions to himself on the matter. I can’t see this getting put on a leaflet any time soon.”

MSP Alasdair Allan tweeted: “Donald Trump is now officially against Scottish independence. Money could not buy that kind of advert for Scottish independence!”

SNP MP Angus MacNeil also wrote on Twitter: “Goodness, Scottish independence must have a whole raft of new global supporters as Donald Trump says ‘bad’.”

One comment on Twitter referred back to the names Trump was called during protests in Scotland about his campaign. “Not your call, baw juggler!” it said.

In the Wall Street Journal interview, Trump also said he wanted to do a trade deal with the UK after Brexit.

He said: “I can say that we’re going to be very involved with the UK. I mean, you don’t hear the word Britain any more. It’s very interesting. It’s like, nope.

“I have a very good relationship with the Prime Minister. And we are absolutely looking to do a major trade deal. It’ll be a big trade deal – much, much more business than we do right now, many, many times.”

*Nincompoop – according to the Oxford English Dictionary, a nincompoop is “a foolish or stupid person”. It’s a late 17th-century word “perhaps from the given name Nicholas or from Nicodemus (by association with the Pharisee of this name, and his naive questioning of Christ; compare with French nicodème meaning ‘simpleton’)”.