WATCH | Well, this is awks! Former campaign advisor compares Trump to Madiba

Carter Page, a former advisor to the Trump campaign, who is currently under investigation by the FBI on whether he colluded with Russia to undermine the 2016 US presidential election, has likened the Russia-Trump investigation to what former South African President Nelson Mandela went through during apartheid.

In a documentary aired on Sky News, Page said that Trump has been under "tremendous constraints, pressures and abuses."

"In a lot of  ways he reminds me of Nelson Mandela. A lot of people were using the intelligence apparatus to go after him in illicit ways. There's significant things that he's (Trump) persevered through."

The Washington Post reported that recent documents filed by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in the US show that a fund set up to help pay legal costs incurred by aides to Trump who are part of the Russian investigation had so far raised around $200,000.

On Sunday Trump admitted in a tweet that his son had a meeting in 2016 with a Krelim-connected lawyer to get information about his then political opponent, Hillary Clinton.

The confirmation of the meeting has been labelled a u-turn by many with The Chicago Tribune reporting that 13 months ago Trump released a statement explaining that the meeting was to discuss a programme about the adoption of Russian children.

The comment from Page about Trump and Mandela has since gone viral and raised the ire of many on social media.

Page has called the investigation into his activities "absolutely ridiculous" and said he has "never been asked to do anything illegal, immoral or unethical through the 25 years I've been looking into Russia and spending time there."

You can watch the full clip here (Skip to the 7.55 mark for the comment on Mandela and Trump)