President Donald Trump was called out after he praised Liberian President Joseph Boakai’s command of English—embarrassingly unaware that English is the official language of Liberia.
Boakai had been delivering a speech during a meeting with other African leaders at the White House on Wednesday in which he remarked that Liberia is "a long-time friend of the United States and we believe in your policy of making America great again."
Trump was intrigued and said:
“Well, thank you. And such good English, that’s beautiful. Where did you learn to speak so beautifully?"
“Where were you educated? Where? In Liberia? Well, that’s very interesting. It’s beautiful English. I have people at this table can’t speak nearly as well.”
Boakai gave a nervous chuckle as Trump spoke.
You can watch what happened in the video below.
The moment underscored just how unprepared Trump was for an encounter with the Liberian leader.
Liberia, an anglophone nation on West Africa’s coast, is often referred to as Africa’s oldest republic. The country was established in the early 19th century by freed American slaves, with support from both abolitionists and slaveholders who viewed the resettlement of free Black Americans as a solution to rising racial tensions in the U.S.
The capital city, Monrovia, is named after James Monroe, the fifth U.S. president and a supporter of the American Colonization Society—the group that purchased land in West Africa and organized the migration of free Black people to what would become Liberia. Ironically, Monroe himself was a slave owner.
Though Liberia has a significant Indigenous population, many of its citizens are descendants of those early settlers. In 1847, Liberia declared independence and adopted a Constitution modeled on the U.S.'s. In its Declaration of Independence, Liberia explicitly condemned the racism, violence, and inequality in America that compelled them to seek a new life elsewhere.
Trump was harshly criticized.
Trump was hosting the leaders of Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania and Senegal— as well as Liberia—in Washington to push them to accept migrants deported by the U.S.
Ahead of the meeting, several African nations received memos from the U.S. requesting that they agree to resettle migrants. This came as part of a broader effort by Trump to secure deportation agreements around the world; just last week, the U.S. sent eight migrants to South Sudan, though only one was actually a citizen of that country.
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