The half brother of President Barack Obama has revealed that he will vote for Donald Trump at the US presidential election this November.
Malik Obama, 57, an accountant in Kenya, used to live in Maryland and is still registered to vote there. He plans to travel back to the US to cast his ballot for the Republican candidate.
Since 2009, his half-brother has served as President of the United States for the Republicans’ main political rival, the Democrats.
Malik said the key reason for choosing to support Trump was the scandal over Hillary Clinton’s use of a private email server while she was his half-brother’s secretary of state.
Clinton is hoping to succeed Barack as president when the US goes to the polls in November.
Malik, who has a had a falling out with his relative in the White House, also said he was “disappointed” at Clinton over the death of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, who was a personal friend.
Malik, who has several wives, also told the New York Post: “I feel like a Republican now because they don’t stand for same-sex marriage, and that appeals to me.”
He added: “I like Donald Trump because he speaks from the heart.”
Reacting to the news, Trump said: “Wow, he was probably treated badly by the president like everybody else.”
The 57-year-old and the president had the same father but a different mother and the two men first met in 1985.
Seven years later he was best man when the future president married his wife Michelle in Chicago.
President Obama and his half-brother appear to have had little contact with each other in recent times, according to reports.
Malik “spoke to his brother a year ago and was miffed that he did nothing to help his own foray into politics when he ran for governor of the southwestern Kenyan county of Siaya in 2013,” according to the New York Post.