'I don't mind being Nelson Mandela' - Donald Trump decries persecution

Former US president Donald Trump on Monday compared himself to South Africa’s late leader and Nobel Peace laureate, Nelson Mandela, during a rally in New Hampshire.

He cast himself as the victim of federal and state prosecutors who he alleges are targeting him and his businesses for political reasons.

Returning to the state to register for its presidential primary, much of his speech focused on the criminal and civil cases against him.

And at one point he suggested he was not scared of going to prison like Mandela, who spent 27 years in jail for opposing South Africa’s apartheid system.

“I don't mind being Nelson Mandela because I'm doing it for a reason. I'm doing it for a reason. We got to save our country from these fascists,” said Trump.

Trump claimed that prosecutors “only go after the people that challenge the results of the election. They don't go after the people that cheated”.

“Those people are free. Those people have no problem. If you want to challenge the result of an election, they hound you,” he added.

Trump also read the lyrics of a dark song, “The Snake”, that he's used since his first campaign as an allegory of what he says are the dangers of illegal immigration.

He claimed Biden would turn the country “into a hotbed for jihadists and make our cities into dumping grounds resembling the Gaza Strip”.

Trump, who is vying for the Republican nomination to stand for president in next year’s elections, is facing a total of 91 criminal counts, including four for alleged federal 2020 election subversion.