Donald Trump a cheat? A bit of 'truthful hyperbole' never hurt anyone – Scotsman comment

Donald Trump is facing legal action in the US (Picture: Tom Pennington/Getty Images)

The Scotsman is shocked and appalled to hear of the leading Aberdeenshire and Ayrshire golfing tycoon Donald Trump’s latest, and apparently quite serious, legal troubles in the US.

According to New York attorney-general Letitia James, Trump – also known for serving as the 45th President of the United States – “falsely inflated his net worth by billions of dollars to unjustly enrich himself, and cheat the system, thereby cheating all of us”.

In addition to allegedly overstating the value of several of his properties, he also stands accused of playing down their worth for tax purposes.

Could this really be the same Donald J Trump as our very own business guru? Who could ever have imagined he would act in any kind of boastful way or, heaven forbid, “cheat” anyone.

Admittedly, there are some who have suggested he cheated at golf, a game which we are sure Trump regards with an almost sacred reverence. Sportswriter Rick Reilly, who has played him, even wrote a book about it, called Commander in Cheat: How Golf Explains Trump.

However, if there were any times at all when Trump inadvertently misspoke or exaggerated, slightly or even quite a lot, then we feel sure it was in keeping with the ‘innovative’ business practices described in his 1987 book The Art of the Deal.

“People want to believe that something is the biggest and the greatest and the most spectacular,” he wrote. “I call it truthful hyperbole. It’s an innocent form of exaggeration, and a very effective form of promotion.”

There, we’re sure it’s all fine. Just a bit of innocent ‘truthful hyperbole’, that’s all. Nothing to see here.