DONALD Trump is guilty of “misogyny at its worst” and should not be US President, Nicola Sturgeon has said, breaking the traditional diplomatic silence about other nations’ elections.

Asked on ITV’s Peston on Sunday if she would be proud to see a half-Scottish President, given Mr Trump’s mother came from Stornoway, the First Minister replied: “No. I hope Donald Trump doesn’t become President... and I expect the people of the United States will have the good sense not to elect him.”

Mr Trump has slipped in recent polls after the emergence of a 2005 tape in which he said fame meant he could “do anything” to women, including grabbing their privates.

He later downplayed the comments as “locker room talk”.

But, in a second TV appearance, Ms Sturgeon told Dermot Murnaghan on Sky News: “The dismissal of that kind of language and attitudes as just locker room banter - that is really misogyny at its worst, and we’ve all got to stand up against that.

“It’s not usual for politicians in other countries to comment on elections, and certainly not for leaders of governments to do so. But how America votes, who is the president of America, has implications for the rest of the world.

“I abhor the views and comments that Donald Trump has been making in this campaign.

“I recognise it’s for the people of America to decide who they want to be their president. I’m just being pretty straight in my own view that I hope that is President Hillary Clinton.”

Ms Sturgeon last year stripped Mr Trump, who owns two Scottish golf courses, of his status as a GlobalScot business ambassador after he called for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States”.