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Man who handed back honorary degree to RGU in Donald Trump protest praises university

Donald Trump
Donald Trump

The former principal of the Robert Gordon University who handed back his honorary degree in protest of Donald Trump receiving one has praised their decision to revoke it.

But David Kennedy now wants the university to apologise for giving the American businessman the honour in the first place.

Mr Trump was given the honour in 2010 in recognition of his business acumen entrepreneurship and the golf resort at Menie.

 David Kennedy
David Kennedy

The decision prompted Mr Kennedy – who received his in recognition of the years he served at the university, which spanned 1985-1997 – to publicly hand his back, with the words “not wanted” scrawled on it.

And although pleased with RGU’s decision to revoke presidential hopeful Mr Trump’s doctorate this week in response to his calls for all Muslims to be banned from the US, Mr Kennedy has now called for the institution to admit it was wrong to give him it the degree to begin with.

He said: “Along comes Mr Trump with all his bombast about the greatest golf course in the world, et cetera, and I thought what an obnoxious person this is, and I learned how he was pushing around the people of the Menie estate as if there was no consequence because he was a billionaire.

“And then what happens, RGU are going to give him an honorary degree. I thought long and hard about what I could do, and I thought the only thing I can do is hand my degree back and tell them I don’t want it, tell them to stuff it.

“I think that what the staff of RGU have done is really quite extraordinary and courageous.

“What I would like from RGU is an acknowledgement that they made a serious mistake when they offered it to him in the first instance.”

RGU announced on Wednesday it was rescinding the honour on the basis of Mr Trump’s statements being “incompatible” with its ethos and values.

A spokeswoman for the university declined to comment on Mr Kennedy’s comments.