Mexican government blasts Donald Trump for 'prejudiced and absurd' comments at campaign launch

Mexico's interior minister on Tuesday lashed out at Republican U.S. presidential hopeful Donald Trump, labeling comments he made about the country in his announcement speech earlier in the day as "prejudiced and absurd."

The real estate mogul and TV personality barged his way into the 2016 U.S. presidential election in a blitz of boasts and inflammatory comments, some of them directed at the United States' southern neighbor.

In his speech, Trump said Mexico was not a friend of the United States country, describing Mexican migrants to the country as drug-runners and rapists.

The freshly minted Republican candidate pledged to build "a great, great wall on our southern border," adding that he would ensure that Mexico pay for it.

"Regarding the comments made by Donald Trump, to me they seem prejudiced and absurd," Interior Minister Miguel Angel Osorio Chong told reporters at an antidiscrimination event in the Mexican capital.

Trump was clearly ignorant of the many positive contributions Mexican migrants make in the United States, Osorio Chong said.

"I think what (Trump) did is generate controversy, but not a plan," he added.

(Reporting by David Alire Garcia; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)