Donald Trump is ‘radical’… but ‘give him time’, says Mugabe

Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe says Donald Trump’s Mexico wall “appears quite nasty” but the US president “might come up with better policies”, state media reported on Sunday.

In excerpts of an interview to be broadcast to mark his 93rd birthday on Tuesday, Mugabe was largely unwilling to criticise Trump, though he did admit the US president was “radical”.

Said Mugabe in quotes carried by the Sunday Mail: “I was surprised by his election but I didn’t like Madam Clinton either.”

He added: “I don’t know whether the construction of the wall between America and Mexico is feasible… it appears quite nasty.” Zimbabwe has its own experience of keep-out fences: Botswana erected one along the border in 2002, ostensibly to protect its cattle from foot-and-mouth. But many thought the wall was to keep out Zimbabwe migrants.

Mugabe said it was “arrogant” of former US president Barack Obama to extend sanctions on Zimbabwe before he left office in January.

Mugabe has been in power since independence in 1980 and plans to stand again in elections next year. News24