On the same day that a New Hampshire poll put Donald Trump second in the race to be the Republican Party's nominee for president in 2016, the New York mogul said that African-American youths had "no spirit" and blamed Barack Obama for dividing the country.

Mr Trump was talking at the annual dinner of the Maryland GOP on 23 June, which state officials said would draw in over $100,000 for the party in the Northeastern state.

Talking with reporters, he spoke briefly about race relations in the country following the shooting in Charleston, South Carolina last week and after President Obama discussed the matter with Marc Maron, with the country's first black president using the "N-word".

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Mr Trump said that African-American youth had reached "a point where they've just about never done more poorly, there's no spirit, there’s killings on an hourly basis virtually in places like Baltimore and Chicago and many other places.

"There’s no spirit. I thought that President Obama would be a great cheerleader for the country. And he’s really become very divisive."

Mr Trump was speaking as a Suffolk Unversity poll in New Hampshire put him in second place behind former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, the brother of former President George W Bush and the son of the 41st President, George H W Bush.

Responding to his place in the poll, Mr Trump said, "I can't believe Bush is in first place. This guy can't negotiate his way out of a paper bag. So I'm in second place to Bush? I hate it!"

He used the poll, which was good news for a man who had only entered the race last week, to attack Mr Bush's record. "Bush is weak, he's weak on immigration and he's wrong on education and he's wrong on a lot of subjects and he's not a negotiator," Trump went on. "If Bush gets in, China will absolutely eat our lunch."

Mr Trump also commented on the US-Mexico border, relaying a conversation he had had with some Mexican waiters, telling the audience that he gets on really well with people from south of the border.

"I love Mexicans. I've had tremendous relationships with people in Mexico. But we need a strong border. I said we need a wall!"

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