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Trump's ancestral homeland bewildered by his presidential campaign

Donald Trump may be the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination, but he's not very popular on Scotland's Isle of Lewis -- his ancestral homeland
Donald Trump's Scottish homeland unamused by his campaign 02:48

STORNOWAY, Scotland -- On the path to the Republican nomination, 19 of 29 states have gone to Donald Trump. But we wondered if "The Donald" is "The One" in the old sod.

There are plenty of reasons for singing laments about the hard life up on the Isle of Lewis, off Scotland's wild northwest coast.

But in the town of Stornoway, they have a new lament -- Donald Trump.

They did meet Donald Trump once, when he paid a brief visit to Lewis, reports CBS News' Mark Phillips. He stopped at the house his mother Mary Anne MacLeod grew up in before she left for New York seven decades ago.

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Donald Trump visits his mother's childhood home on the isle of Lewis in Scotland CBS News

At the time, Trump said he was "just happy to be back here." The happiness, though, isn't mutual.

Local author Ian Stephen summed up the islanders' attitude toward Trump's run for president. "There is this irrational sense of guilt. What have we spawned?"

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Stephen says the islanders don't have that traditional feel-good connection with Donald Trump -- not the way JFK did with his ancestral home in Ireland, or that Ronald Reagan also had.

Even Barack Obama, Irish on his mother's side, was well-received.

But with Trump, they ask themselves a question. "What the hell is our Donald up to now?"

It's not just his controversial statements that have the people of Lewis ducking for cover. It's his style. Boastful, showy, self-promotion doesn't play well on Lewis, the home of quiet, Scottish Presbyterian reserve.

"People don't blow their own trumpets here. They're very modest," said Gerry Blane, a guitarist in a local band.

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There are similarities, though. The hair, for one, seems to go back through his mother Mary to the MacLeod clan. In fact, there's a joke on the isle of Lewis that it's all about the local wind.

"That northeaster sweeping for years and years and years, that has obviously left that wave in the hair, which had genetically somehow come down through the generations to Donald," Stephen explained.

They're doing what they've always done when a storm blows up on the remote island -- finding refuge in friendship, music, and a sense of humor.

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