By Khanyisile Ngcobo and Mayeni Jones | BBC News |
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,” Mr 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.”
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.
Mr 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 Mr Mpotjoane declined to criticise this decision, saying it was the US’s “prerogative to cut aid if they want to”.
Trump is really a bad public speaker as he doesn’t have filters and morals in his speech however there are many countries in Africa that most Americans have never heard of because they do not have any representation or popularity about them.
I think we all know Trump is a bum, but it is not true that he has never heard of Lesotho, I think he was trying to impress the point that it is such an insignificant country in many respects
This guy will never finish his term
Lesotho ambassador to the US must visit the white house and give the whole staff a lesson of where Lesotho is and what it stands for….
Trump is right. .What we should worry us are African leaders who steal public money and hide it in foreign banks or in dubai..One more thing America doesn't owe any country a dime..
We don't know all the countries in the world too
Just coz he’s never heard of it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist- this dude is quite unbelievable..!
The real question is do there get the funds
And our leaders must to a point where they understand we cant be funded forever
And expect respect we don't deserve
8 million free is enough for that remark
You don't want the remark only if you don't want the money