Alex Salmond has claimed US property tycoon Donald Trump will finally come round and appreciate the benefits of renewable energy.
The first minister’s comments follow a warning from Mr Trump that Scotland risked become “the laughing stock of the world” if it persisted with the drive to harness offshore wind energy.
Mr Trump is waging a battle against a windfarm which he claims will ruin his £1billion golf resort at the Menie Estate in Aberdeenshire.
The billionaire has threatened to abandon the project unless the Scottish Government rejects the plans for 11 turbines, each 639ft high.
Backers of the £150million European Offshore Deployment Centre, claim it is crucial to the area’s future economic development.
Yesterday, Mr Salmond claimed Mr Trump will eventually be persuaded of the benefits of offshore wind.
He said: “People will be opposed for a whole variety of reasons but as we mobilise this industry, as we are established as world leaders, as tens of thousands of jobs come to this country and we re-industrialise this nation then, eventually, just about everybody will get on board, even Donald Trump.”
No one at the Trump International Golf Links was available to comment.