Trump eulogises anti-feminist icon Phyllis Schlafly

"The legacy will live on every time some underdog outmatches and outguns, defies the odds and delivers a win for the people," he said.

WASHINGTON: Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has eulogised conservative icon Phyllis Schlafly, praising her as an underdog and linking the anti-feminist movement she led to his anti-establishment campaign.

"She loved her country, she loved her family and she loved her God," reported CNN citing Trump as saying at the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis on Saturday.

"The legacy will live on every time some underdog outmatches and outguns, defies the odds and delivers a win for the people," he said.

"America has always been about the underdog and always been about defying the odds," he added.

Schlafly died on September 5 at the age of 92. An early supporter of the Religious Right, she was most well-known for her opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s and becoming one of the leading female critics of the feminist movement, CNN reported.

Trump praised Schlafly for being "America First", a phrase he's used to articulate his international policies on trade, immigration and other global affairs.

"And in all her battles, she never strayed from the one guiding principle: She was for America and was always 'America First'," he said, adding: "People have forgotten that nowadays. With Phyllis, it was America First."

Trump -- who famously never apologises, at least not publicly -- also said Schlafly was someone who "never apologised", CNN added.