By Luis De Jesus
06 Apr 2024, 19:37 PM EDT
The former president of the United States, Donald Trump, who is emerging as a future Republican candidate for the November elections, reiterated this Saturday his comparisons with Nelson Mandela by presenting himself as a victim of political persecution.
“I would like to be a modern Nelson Mandela. “It would be a great honor,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social, in an effort to portray himself as a persecuted figure.
Nelson Mandela, awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993, spent almost 30 years in prison for his fight against apartheid and became the first black president of South Africa in the free elections of 1994, which marked the end of centuries of white domination, published Efe.
“Amazing to be so egocentric”
Trump’s words provoked criticism from the campaign of the current US president, Democrat Joe Biden.
“It’s amazing to be so self-centered as to compare yourself to Jesus Christ and Nelson Mandela in less than a week. That’s Donald Trump,” Jasmine Harris, African American media director for the Biden campaign, commented sarcastically.
It is not the first time that Trump has compared himself to Mandela. He had already done so at a rally in New Hampshire last October.
These statements arose after Judge Juan Merchan this week extended the gag order that prevents Trump from making public comments on the criminal trial that will begin on April 15 in New York in the case of irregular payments to porn actress Stormy Daniels. during the 2016 campaign.
The Republican has harshly criticized Merchan and has even directed comments towards his daughter, which led to the imposition of this silence order. And if he violates it, Trump could face fines or, in serious cases, even jail time, according to legal experts.
However, it is difficult to predict the exact consequences he would face, as no former US president has been criminally prosecuted before.
In total, Trump faces four criminal cases.
In addition to the trial in New York, he faces a case in Washington DC for trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election, in which he lost to Biden. He is also being investigated in Georgia for his attempts to overturn the election results in that state.
And in Florida he is accused of having illegally stored classified material in his Mar-a-Lago mansion after leaving the Presidency.
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