It was one of the highlights of Holyrood's year, with our elected politicians mere bit players in a high drama.

Donald Trump, who is angry about the prospect of offshore wind turbines being erected near his luxury golf course in Aberdeenshire, has told an inquiry into green energy that "Wind turbines, made in China, are going to be the destruction - almost a total destruction - of your tourism industry."

Here are 18 key numbers in the life story of The Donald:

Half the number of holes on Trump’s new Menie golf course, which he hopes will become “the best in the world”.  And also the number of letters in his nickname, The Donald.  Trump likes sobriquets – he warned the First Minister recently he could become known as “Mad Alex” over his support for renewable energy.

A symbolic year for the Trump dynasty’s relationship with Scotland: when his mother Mary Anne left Tong, Lewis, for a holiday in New York, met a US builder and married. Trump visited the old family croft in 2008, while a public inquiry into the Menie development was under way. A publicity stunt? Naturally, he denied it.

The Donald is one of five siblings. There’s also The (late) Fred,  The Robert, The Maryanne, and The Elizabeth. He also has five children: Donald Jr, Ivanka, Eric, Tiffany, and Barron, ranging in age from 34 to just five.

 

Trump has notched up three wives. The marvellous  Ivana was an even larger than life figure than him,  but their 15-year marriage crumbled after rumours emerged of his affair with former beauty queen Marlan Maples.  Soon after the divorce, she became Mrs Trump II, but that lasted only two years. In 2005, Trump married Melania Knauss, a Slovenian national who is 24 years his junior and the mother of his fifth child.

The age at which Trump was taken out of school after some problems and sent by his parents to the New York Military Academy boarding school. The life of a football-playing cadet seemed to suit.

 

Billion dollars, his estimated net worth last month.  Quite a jump from his position four decades ago when he took control of his father’s housing rental firm in Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island.

 

Storeys on the iconoclastic Trump Towers, the 52nd tallest building in New York and probably the best known symbol of the great man’s empire.

 

 

His latest position on the Forbes celebrity list, bolstered by his numerous books and hosting of NBC’s version of The Apprentice.  Lord Sugar might provide a better delivery of “You’re Fired”, but The Donald got there first.

 

The number of  times Trump has had to take the unusual step of filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy to protect parts of his business empire. The process is known by the Wall Street crowd as “restructuring debt” and by corporate critics as morally dubious.

Trump was, predictably, unapologetic in a TV interview:  "I've used the laws of this country to pare debt. ... We'll have the company. We'll throw it into a Chapter (11). We'll negotiate with the banks. We'll make a fantastic deal. You know, it's like on The Apprentice. It's not personal. It's just business."

(Again). In each of the last four US presidential campaigns, Trump has speculated about being a candidate…only to rule himself out.  Time magazine carried a Breaking News story last year: Donald Trump Begins Not Running for President.  It’s also worth noting that he’s had four party allegiances – from the Republicans, to Ross Perot’s Reform Party, to the Democrats, back to the Republicans, and now (maybe) as an Independent.


 Million followers on Twitter. Like all the best celebrities, Trump in turn is following only 17 accounts, including three of his children, the Trump Network, The Apprentice….and, sadly, Piers Morgan.  By their friends ye shall know them, and all that.

 


Golf courses under his wing, and several more under construction, with Menie in a near finished state.

 

 

Million pounds is the estimated total cost of the Scottish project, which also features…

 

 


…holiday homes and …

 

 

houses. Cynics have suggested that Trump is less interested in Scottish tourism, and more in flogging real estate. He says it’s an integrated package.

 

 

Prominent detractors of the Menie scheme include 86-year-old Molly Forbes, who fought a vain attempt to stop him developing her land.

 

 


Another rallying point for Trump opponents is the 95-minute film by Anthony Baxter, You’ve Been Trumped.

 

 

Trump has threatened  to abandon Menie because of the plan to site 11 wind turbines off the Aberdeenshire coast. The Donald says it will blight the scenic aspect of his complex, and has launched a sustained attack on the proposal and its backers, not least Mr Salmond.

 

(Again)  The inward nine holes on the course, and also the number of members on Holyrood’s economy, energy and tourism committee, who will grill/be grilled by Trump today, under the chairmanship of Murdo Fraser.