Trump’s alleged remarks anger South Africans

JOHANNESBURG — The report that President Donald Trump made crude, disparaging remarks about Nelson Mandela, South Africa's Nobel Peace Prize-winning former leader, has drawn an angry response from South Africa's ruling party and others.

According to a book written by Michael Cohen, Trump’s former personal lawyer, Trump said that Mandela, who guided South Africa in its politically fraught transition from a racist apartheid government to a democracy, was a terrible leader.

Cohen wrote that after Mandela’s death in 2013, Trump said: “Mandela f---the whole country up. Now it’s a s--hole. F--- Mandela. He was no leader.”

Mandela is widely revered by all racial groups in South Africa and generally has a glowing international reputation as a skilled statesman who avoided a nationwide bloodbath.

“All freedom-loving people of the world are appalled by these insults, which come from a person who himself is not a model of competent leadership,” said a statement Tuesday from South

Africa's ruling African National Congress party. It called Trump the most “divisive, misogynistic and disrespectful person” ever to be president of the U.S.

Mandela's dedication to “peace and a just society” stands in “stark contrast” to Trump's policies, said the ANC.

In a statement, the Nelson Mandela Foundation also criticized Trump, saying: “We do not believe that leaders who conduct themselves in the way Mr. Trump does are in a position to offer authoritative commentary on the life and work of Madiba (Mandela's clan name).”