Trump would be 'American Mussolini' says writer Kennedy

Donald Trump has no chance of winning the US presidential election, best-selling US writer Douglas Kennedy has told AFP -- but if he did, he would be an "American Mussolini".

"Trump has no chance," said Kennedy of the Republican candidate in next month's US presidential election.

But the fact that he was even in the running for the White House was indicative of "the rise of the far right all around the world," he said in an interview at his home in Paris.

Douglas Kennedy has written 12 novels, include "The Big Picture" and "The Pursuit of Happiness" ©Martin Bureau (AFP)

"It's not just a US phenomenon," he said, pointing to what he called the "Brexit disaster", when Britain voted in a referendum in June to pull out of the European Union.

"Donald Trump is misogynist, misanthropic," said Kennedy. "He has an ego the size of Canada. He has no culture, he never reads.

"Compared to Trump, (former US president) George W. Bush was Chateaubriand," he quipped, referring to the French 18th century writer and historian.

But he warned: "If he was elected, Trump would be the American Mussolini."

Kennedy, whose 12 novels include "The Big Picture" and "The Pursuit of Happiness", said his vote would go to the Democrat nominee Hillary Clinton.

"She will be a very great president," he said, denouncing what he said was the misogynistic abuse she had faced.

"There has never been such a gulf between a progressive America turned towards the outside world -- as embodied by Bill Clinton and Barack Obama -- and the ultra-religious, anti-abortion, pro-family values vision defended by the Republicans," he said.

Kennedy, 61, has sold millions of copies of his books worldwide, which have been translated into 22 languages. Several have been adapted for the cinema, including "The Woman in the Fifth" which came out in 2011, starring Ethan Hawke.