Lesotho’s government says it is shocked by US President Donald Trump saying that “nobody has ever heard of” the southern African nation.
Trump, addressing the US Congress in his first speech since his return to the Oval Office, made the reference as he listed cuts made to what he said was wasteful expenditure.
“Eight million dollars to promote LGBTQI+ in the African nation of Lesotho, which nobody has ever heard of,” Trump said, eliciting laughter from some US lawmakers.
A spokesperson for Lesotho’s foreign affairs department told the BBC that Lesotho enjoyed “warm and cordial” relations with the US.
Lesotho is one of the biggest beneficiaries of the US’s African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa), which gives favourable trade access to some countries to promote their economic growth.
According to the US government, the two countries traded goods worth $240m (£187m) in 2024, mostly exports from Lesotho to the US, in particular textiles and clothing.
Lesotho’s Foreign Affairs Minister Lejone Mpotjoane said it was “shocking” to hear a head of state “refer to another sovereign state in that manner”.
“To my surprise, ‘the country that nobody has heard of’ is the country where the US has a permanent mission,” Mpotjoane told the BBC.
“Lesotho is a member of the UN and of a number of other international bodies. And the US has an embassy here and [there are] a number of US organisations we’ve accommodated here in Maseru.”
He later told the AFP news agency: “We are not taking this matter lightly,” adding that they would send an official protest letter to Washington.
Officials dismissed Trump’s remarks as “off the cuff” and a “political statement”, adding that they were “uncalled-for” given the good relations between the two nations.
“We maintain very warm and cordial relations with the US. They’ve got a mission in Maseru and we also have [one] in Washington,” foreign affairs spokesperson Kutloano Pheko told the BBC.
Mr Pheko was unable to confirm Trump’s comments on the funding that went to LGBTQ organisations, saying that as the money went directly to them, they would be best placed to comment.
Mpotjoane, on his part, confirmed that the country had been affected by Trump’s sudden decision to pause aid funding to countries around the world.
Many organisations, mostly non-governmental, were thrown into chaos after the Trump administration announced a permanent end to the US President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (Pepfar) funding as part of a wider cost-cutting drive to reduce US government spending.
Pepfar was launched in 2003 by then US President George W Bush and its finances are distributed via the US government’s main overseas aid agency USAID, whose funding has also been cut.
Lesotho is among those countries that benefited from Pepfar, its health ministry told South African publication GroundUp in February, with TB and HIV programmes among those receiving the critical funds.
But Mpotjoane declined to criticise this decision, saying it was the US’s “prerogative to cut aid if they want to”.
BBC
Let ignorant tRump be tRump! So, this should come as no surprise…
Kundanandji was asking her team mates in USA if they knew capital city of Zambia, NONE have ever heard of your Lusaka.
He is only used to denigrate Africa and this attack has nothing to do with his ignorance. He is a supremacist ideologue, and that is his best game.
They need a lot of men in white coats nearby all times 27/7.
The world has been very rusty for a very long time and Trump is trying to clean it
Cleaning the rust. Demeaning you, and you say he is cleaning the rust. Telling you that you don’t exist (an African) and you say he is cleaning the rust. Ist because he’s white and to you all is well with such astatement. What trump said is an uncalled-for. All countries must be recognized and citizens given the due respect. The stament is actually an insolation.
Indeed if you dont live in Africa who has heard of Lesotha ??
as with those who live here who has heard of Monrovia ??
He knows so much about the Kingdom of Lesotho. He just cares less about that nation that he imagines it never existed. Trump almost always wants to be outside the box sometimes even twisting facts. A changemaker. To behave, act and think differently, is his hallmark.
I wouldn’t lose sleep if someone didn’t know my name especially a jackass.
Have you forgotten that he always looks down on the dark continent of Africa? I mean, that sh†† hole. Should it surprise us if one day he refers to Zambia as nothing but filthy trash?
He will inquire: Oh boy, where is Zambia? Is it a mountain, a river or a forest?
If it wasn’t for him, HH would have trotted to the US already like he’s done the past four years.
He’s purging lgbtiq propaganda from the world and pipo are objecting to that ?
African states should proactively help him root out these nasty projects so that the remaining sensible projects can be sustained/kept.
Whining about this gives trump the impression that Africans are for corruption and supports this lgbt madness.
We thrive on corruption let’s be truthful here
also let live and let live why should one be forced to live to your morals and conduct
no human is born the same ? and let’s leave religion out of this as after all it is only a mental faith without evedence
He calls a spade a spade unfortunately we cnnot do that here
He has done us and africa a favour we have the richest mineral continent in the world and done ziltch with it, and so it shall continue until all 1st world contries leave us to come forward at our african snail pace