Republican Donald Trump, candidate for the American presidential election in November and surrounded by legal troubles, compared himself on Saturday to a “modern-day Mandela”, provoking strong criticism from the Biden camp.
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Over the past year, the former president has been indicted in four criminal cases, all of which put him at risk of prison.
Among other things, he is accused of having orchestrated questionable payments to a pornographic film star – a case which will be judged from April 15.
Donald Trump regularly attacks the judge who will preside over this trial via inflammatory publications on social networks. Magistrate Juan Merchan, in return, imposed restrictions on his speech.
On Saturday, the Republican billionaire mentioned these speech bans in a very long publication on his Truth Social network, accusing the judge of “violating the law and the Constitution, at the same time”.
“If this completely partisan charlatan wants to put me in jail for telling the most obvious truth, I will gladly become a modern-day Nelson Mandela — that would be a great honor,” he said, referring to the man who ended the apartheid regime in South Africa in the 1990s after being a prisoner for 27 years.
A few days earlier, Donald Trump had already republished a fake audience sketch where he is seen sitting… right next to Jesus Christ.
So many messages mocked by the team of Democratic President Joe Biden, who will face Donald Trump in the presidential election.
“Imagine being so self-centered that you compare yourself to Jesus Christ and Nelson Mandela in the space of just over a week,” scoffed a spokeswoman, Jasmine Harris, in a statement.
In separate cases, Donald Trump is also accused of trying to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, and of negligent handling of state secrets.