Donald Trump's lawyer has been ridiculed online after making a collage of himself pictured with black people to prove he is not racist.

Michael Cohen tweeted a selection of selfies in an apparent bid to distance himself from anger over the President's response to white supremacist violence in Charlottesville.

"As the son of a holocaust survivor, I have no tolerance for racism," Mr Trump's personal attorney wrote alongside eight pictures of himself with African Americans.

He added: "Just because I support @POTUS @realDonaldTrump doesn't make me a racist."

Twitter users mocked the post, described by some as "weird".

"You really just made a grid of the 10 black people you know," suggested Daniel Aubry.

Another said: "Did you really tell your assistant 'Find me a bunch of pictures of me with black people' for this tweet?'"

A third asked: "Did you collect photos of yourself with black people specifically in case this came up?"

Others told Mr Cohen he was "complicit" in the emboldening of white supremacy under Mr Trump's administration.

Questioned about the tweet by journalist Olivia Nuzzi, he replied: "Trump is not a racist and neither am I. The attacks against him and all of us who support him are disgusting, disgraceful and hurtful."

Asked "why do pictures of you with black people prove that", the lawyer added: "All morning I am receiving horrific comments about being anti-black, racist etc, for supporting Trump. Wrong!

Mr Trump's attitude to race has been under the spotlight after he defended neo-Nazis who demonstrated in Charlottesville and partly blamed left-wing activists for violence that left an anti-fascist protester dead.

His claim that there was "blame on both sides" for the deadly disorder won applause from David Duke, former leader of the Ku Klux Klan, who praised the President's "honesty and courage".

Last year Mr Cohen was forced to backtrack after speaking of the "African American problem" in the US during an interview.

"What I meant to say is the problem that exists in the African American community," he later clarified, referring to the police shooting of 23-year-old black man Sylville Smith and ensuing riots.