Boris Johnson compares Trump to Mugabe

Donald Trump is no worse than ageing Zimbabwe president Robert Mugabe, Britain's foreign secretary Boris Johnson has suggested, News24.com reported.

Johnson has defended the under-fire new US president's right to a state visit to Britain by saying that Queen Elizabeth II has previously hosted Romanian dictator Nicolai Ceausescu and Mugabe, so could "probably cope" with Trump, The Independent reported.

Mugabe was awarded a knighthood by the Queen during the Zimbabwe leader's state visit to the UK in 1994. He was stripped of it in 2008, following outrage over rights abuses and election violence.

Currently attending an AU summit in Ethiopia, the Zimbabwe leader hasn't publicly commented on Trump's election although officials close to him appear to be very pleased with it.

Caesar Zvayi, the editor of the pro-Mugabe Herald newspaper tweeted triumphantly on Tuesday morning: "In US, the President chooses Supreme Court judges." That was an attempt to justify Mugabe's recent move to change the constitution so that he alone can appoint a new chief justice. Critics and the opposition are strongly opposed to this move.