African officials to walk out of Donald Trump's Davos speech in wake of 'shithole' remarks

Donald Trump will face a series of walkouts during his keynote speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Quartz revealed that a number of officials are planning a protest by leaving the conference hall during Trump's speech on Friday (26 January) in the Swiss resort.

It is thought that comments made by Trump about African nations has angered several of the delegates that will be in attendance.

During a meeting at the White House, senators confirmed that Trump described African nations as "shithole countries" while also making derogatory remarks about Haiti and El Salvador.

The idea of a boycott was first revealed by Bonang Mohale, the CEO of Leadership South Africa who said in an open letter than he and several others would not be attending his speech "in protest against your divisive comments and continued failure to unequivocally apologise."

Trump is set to fly out on Thursday to prepare for his speech at the summit which will be the first attended by a sitting US president since Bill Clinton in 2000.

He tweeted about his planned speech, saying: "Will soon be heading to Davos, Switzerland, to tell the world how great America is and is doing. Our economy is now booming and with all I am doing, will only get better...Our country is finally WINNING again!"

While in Davos, he will meet with various world leaders including British Prime Minister Theresa May, French President Emmanuel Macron, and the current head of the African Union, Rwandan president Paul Kagame, to "reaffirm the US-Africa relationship and discuss shared priorities."

First Lady Melania Trump had been due to join her husband on the trip to Switzerland but cancelled these plans at late notice due to "scheduling and logistical issues".

She has not been spotted or released a statement of any kind in almost two weeks. She last made a public statement when the news broke over a payout that Donald Trump's lawyers made to a porn star to stay quiet over an alleged affair.

She flew with the president to Mar-a-Lago over the recent holiday weekend but was not spotted with Trump at any of the events.