There are times when it can seem like this is Donald Trump’s world and we’re just living in it. That is certainly how it will have felt to many witnessing his inauguration as he returned to the White House. Indeed, even being the biggest story on one planet doesn’t seem enough, as he declared plans to plant the Stars and Stripes on Mars.
For all the show, the rhetoric and the bromances with tech sector leaders like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, there are of course some major uncertainties that have the potential to impact many of the things people sink their fortunes into, all of which makes spending on whisky cask ownership a smart move.
On the one hand, there will be deep anxiety in Ukraine, uncertainty in Canada and Greenland, questions in China and deep fears in Panama, which, according to Mr Trump, should never have been allowed to own the famous canal that passes through its territory and is about to be forced to give it back to America.
If any Martians are hiding on the red planet, they may be getting their tripods and heat rays ready, just in case.
While the economic impact of Mr Trump’s sabre-rattling is unclear, not least as nobody knows if he will follow up on his threats, the imposition of tariffs could be very significant for many industries, including whisky.
As SNP finance secretary Shona Robison told ITV Border, Mr Trump imposing import taxes on the land of his mother would have “catastrophic” consequences, although she asserted that the Holyrood administration is “optimistic” that this will not happen.
She added that deep concern about the threat has been why first minister John Swinney “has been so front-footed in addressing that at an early opportunity with Donald Trump directly.”
It is possible Mr Trump will look a little more favourably on the land of his ancestry, where he owns a couple of golf courses, and go easy on the whisky industry, perhaps targeting Tunnocks Teacakes or Irn Bru instead. After all, if the cost of Scotch becomes prohibitive, will Americans be content with Jack Daniels for four years?
However, it is at this point the value of cask whisky comes to the fore, as it matures over so many years and can ride out the storms and the ups and downs of so many changes and periods of turbulence.
This can be seen from the fact that we have been here before. Back in 2019, when the UK was still in the EU, Scotch whisky was caught up by the imposition of a 25 per cent tariff on EU agricultural goods imposed by the first Trump administration in retaliation for the granting of subsidies to aircraft maker Airbus, the rival to American company Boeing.
Scotch whisky survived that period and, if needs be, it will do so again. Moreover, it could be that if higher costs are passed on to American consumers and price many out of the whisky market, the scarcity of Scotch may make it more of a luxury good in times to come.
The next four years could be unpredictable in ways that both directly and indirectly affect the value of Scotch whisky. But it will remain undisputed as the finest whisky in the universe, even if Elon Musk sets up a distillery on Mars.