Donald Trump’s Honorary Degree Revoked From Robert Gordon University
The Scottish Robert Gordon University revoked the honorary degree awarded to Donald Trump on Wednesday. The degree was offered in 2010 and was revoked because of his controversial remarks about banning Muslims.
This news follows a petition that was set up in Britain to ban the controversial Republican candidate from entering the U.K. The Inqusitr previously reported that the petition has gathered more than 300,000 signatures. According to the Daily Voice News, the site had temporarily crashed because so many people were attempting to sign it at the same time.
Trump made a controversial comment about banning Muslims from entering the United States on Monday. However, he is no stranger to controversy, and he is gathering support from around the country. Some of his statements have included November 13 Paris victims being killed due to not being armed and Hillary Clinton’s inability to satisfy America since she could not satisfy her own husband.
Now, Aberdeen has joined in with those against Trump. He was originally awarded the honorary degree because of his success as a businessman. Acting principal and vice-chancellor of RGU in 2010 said that his students could learn a great deal from Trump, according to the Independent. It was fitting to award Trump the degree with that in mind. A spokesman for the university has now decided that a number of Trump’s statements are “incompatible with the ethos and values of the university.” It has had no choice but to remove the degree.
Robert Gordon University is not the only Scottish element to take this step. The Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon also made the decision to strip the businessman of the title business ambassador, also due to the remarks made on Monday. She made this decision before the university.
Eyes are currently on other countries and institutes to follow suit. They are also on the U.K. government, which will have to debate the current petition in Parliament. The petition reached the minimum 200,000 signatures in less than 24 hours, despite the website crashing temporarily. Shortly after reaching 100,000 signatures, the minimum needed to get the attention of Parliament, the website suffered downtime for about 20 minutes. The site stated that four people at a time were trying to sign it throughout the first 24 hours, and was believed to be the reason for the crash.
If the petition is successful, Trump will not be the only person banned from the country. Mike Tyson was previously banned due to his rape conviction and the creator of the white supremacist website Stormfront, Stephen Donald Black, has also been banned from the U.K.
The petition against Trump was not just due to his remarks about banning Muslims, but about his comments regarding Metropolitan police not venturing in certain parts of London due to safety worries.
Rather than apologizing for his remarks, Trump said that the British government should be thanking him. He has attacked Scotland for the decision to remove him from positions and his honorary degree, saying that he has already done so much for Scotland. He argues that his “significant investments” in certain areas have helped the economy. Part of his anger has come from Sturgeon and RGU failing to inform him before his multimillion investment, which he says should have happened.
Aberdeen Muslims, a group that promotes equality and Islamic rights, has said that RGU acted bravely. A spokesperson continued to say that Trump is now becoming “quite dangerous” by picking out only Muslims in his debates. Various publications have already likened him to Adolf Hitler, saying that his anti-Muslim stance is just like Hilter’s anti-Jew stance before and during World War II. Trump has not yet answered to any of those claims.
[Photo by Sean Rayford/Getty Images]
