Former US Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power compared Donald Trump to the late Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe following his press briefing on Thursday evening.
Breaking his 36-hour silence after prematurely declaring victory on Wednesday, the Republican presidential candidate continued spewing unfounded conspiracy theories about election fraud and illegal ballot-counting as he addressed Americans from the White House.
He claimed he had won the election, even as ballot counts continue.
Ms Power, the nation’s envoy to the UN during the second Obama administration, tweeted: “He’s going full Robert Mugabe”, referencing to the late Zimbabwean ruler’s grip on power for so many years.
Mugabe ruled the southern African nation as its second president from 1987 to 2017, having also served seven years as the country’s first prime minister.
He was a controversial figure, hailed by some as a hero for his struggle against colonialism and white minority rule, and by others as a dictator responsible for corruption, economic mismanagement, and human rights abuses.
While opposition to Mugabe grew in the 2000s, he was re-elected in 2002, 2008, and 2013, in campaigns noted for electoral fraud, nationalism, and violence.
He was eventually ousted in a coup by his own party in 2017, and died last year.
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