Lesotho’s foreign minister has said it is “insulting” for Donald Trump to say nobody has heard of the country.
In his address to the US Congress on Tuesday, the US president mentioned Lesotho while listing some of the foreign spending he had cut as “appalling waste”.
“Eight million dollars to promote LGBTQI+ in the African nation of Lesotho, which nobody has ever heard of,” Mr Trump said, drawing laughs in the Congress.
The president also appeared to struggle to pronounce the country’s name.
Lesotho’s foreign minister, Lejone Mpotjoane, said: “I’m really shocked that my country can be referred to like that by the head of state.
“Lesotho is such a significant and unique country in the whole world. I would be happy to invite the president, as well as the rest of the world, to come to Lesotho,” Mr Mpotjoane told the Reuters news agency.
He later told The Associated Press: “It is surprising and disappointing that he claimed no one knows Lesotho, especially given that the US has an embassy here.
“He should speak for himself and not generalise.”
The Trump administration has cut billions of dollars in foreign aid worldwide as part of the president’s America First policy.
Lesotho, which has a population of around 2.3 million people, has received American assistance for nearly 20 years through USAID, which gave it more than $44m (£34.1m) last year.
Mr Mpotjoane said while civil society organisations funded by the US embassy in Lesotho did work to support the LGBT+ community, the US also provided important funding to the country’s health and agriculture sectors.
The cuts have forced Lesotho’s HIV programme to lay off at least 1,500 health workers – about 7% of the country’s health staff – in what the government has described as a severe blow.
US aid has been credited with helping Lesotho provide life-saving treatment to more than 200,000 people living with HIV.
Mr Mpotjoane said the government was looking at how to become more self-sufficient.
“The decision by the president to cut the aid… it is [his] prerogative to do that. We have to accept that. But to refer to my country like that, it is quite unfortunate.”
This wasn’t the first time Mr Trump has reportedly been disparaging about Africa. During his first term, it was reported that he referred to African nations, as well as Haiti and El Salvador, as “shithole countries” – though Mr Trump denied this.
Elon Musk, a key adviser to Mr Trump and proponent of the foreign aid cuts in his role as head of the new department of government efficiency, has been trying to do business in Lesotho in recent months.
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Mr Musk’s Starlink internet satellite service, a subsidiary of SpaceX, has applied for a license to operate in Lesotho. It is one of several African countries where the company is bidding to win contracts.
The Lesotho Communications Authority said last month it recently received Starlink’s bid for a 10-year license.
Prince Harry also co-founded the charity Sentebale to support children who live in extreme poverty or suffer from HIV/AIDS in Lesotho.
