US officials equate Robert Mugabe to Donald Trump

By Richard Chidza | NewsDay |

Two senior United States officials have compared President Robert Mugabe’s weird nature to that of that country’s Republican Party presidential nominee Donald Trump.

During debate on the ongoing party primaries and in particular the Democratic Party’s convention in Philadelphia, Congressional representative Adam Schiff and Senator Chris Coons described their meeting with Mugabe last year as “bizarre”.

“We were in Zimbabwe focusing on wildlife trafficking issues and we wanted to meet with the minister responsible for that portfolio.

“As a matter of protocol when you request a meeting with the top ministers, you request a meeting with the President, but nobody has a meeting with Mugabe. So there was little danger of it being accepted. No one was more surprised when we got word that the meeting had been accepted, I was not aware we had asked (for the meeting),” Schiff said.

Coons chipped in describing Mugabe as one of the worst dictators in Africa.

“I have been to 24 countries in Africa and I have never heard a more bizarre meeting with a Head of State. Remember Mugabe is sanctioned by the United States as one of the worst thugs on the continent.

“It was like having thanksgiving dinner with a crazy uncle you have not seen in years,” Coons said.

Mugabe is reportedly to have gone into a tirade, blurting out a volley of questions to his bemused visitors.

“Where he says why aren’t we friends? How did we come to this? Why is your President (Barack Obama) not interested in talking to me? We used to be good friends and he pushed this point and it took a good 15 minutes,” Coons added.

After the monologue, Mugabe then reportedly taunted the US delegation over the likelihood of Trump taking over from Obama as President.

“We went through a series of details, a whole series of things that he has done in the past that have earned him not just disrespect, but also sanctions from the US.

“This produced a very awkward silence after which he looked around to us and his advisers and said: ‘What about Donald Trump?’ They laughed loudly and then he (Mugabe) added, wait until he (Trump) becomes your President, you will wish you had been friendlier to me. I realised with a little bit of disconcert that he had hosted leaders from several other countries not least of the China,” Coons said.

Mugabe was feted by the West following his landslide victory in Zimbabwe’s first all-race elections at the end of a brutal 15-year bush war in 1980 before the wheels began to come off an economy that was once the envy of many in the developing world.

The Zanu PF leader has, according to his critics, resorted to Rhodesian-style tactics in dealing with opposition to his administration including the use of death squads during elections to retain power.