Albanian taxi driver decorates his cab with Trump pictures

TIRANA, Albania (AP) - An Albanian taxi driver who has plastered his cab with pictures of Donald Trump says the U.S. presidential candidate has helped his business prosper.

Uljan Kolgjegja said Monday he was prompted to decorate his taxi with pictures of the Republican candidate after Albania's Prime Minister Edi Rama said Trump could be "a real threat to Albanian-American ties."

The move has attracted attention in the capital Tirana and Kolgjegja says he is earning more money than ever before in his 13 years as a taxi driver.

"His pictures have attracted more clients to my car," he told The Associated Press.

Kolgjegja says he believes that Trump would bring new hopeful developments around the world if he is elected president, while he is more skeptical toward the Democrats' candidate Hillary Clinton.

"Look at the world now, full of wars and (President Barack) Obama and Clinton, who worked for him too, have not done much," he said. "Trump will make a change."

In his comments on Trump earlier this year, Albania's premier Rama also said it would bring "major damage" to the U.S. if he is elected president. Rama was not referring to the Republicans but to a "character that has disturbed" some Republicans so much that they are now willing to vote for Clinton.

"When Trump comes to office in January, I will lighten 200 firecrackers in front of Rama's office," Kolgjegja said.

Tirana and Washington re-established diplomatic ties in 1991 after the fall of the communist regime in the tiny western Balkan country. Former U.S. President George W. Bush received a hero's welcome when he visited Albania in 2007.