Lesotho’s foreign minister, Lejone Mpotjoane, said on Wednesday he was shocked and insulted by US President Donald Trump saying nobody has heard of the African country, and invited him to come visit.
Trump mentioned Lesotho in his address to US Congress on Tuesday evening 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,” Trump said, drawing laughs in the Congress, including vice-president JD Vance and speaker Mike Johnson.
Trump’s speech marked his first major address to both chambers of Congress since his return to office. His administration has cut billions of dollars in foreign aid worldwide as it seeks to align spending with Trump’s “America First” policy.
Mpotjoane said the remark was “quite insulting”.
“I’m really shocked that my country can be referred to like that by the head of state,” he said.
Lesotho, a country of about 2-million people, is encircled by SA.
“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,” said Mpotjoane.
He said some civil society organisations funded by the US embassy in Lesotho did work to support the LGBTQ+ community, but the US also provided important funding for the country’s health and agriculture sectors.
Mpotjoane said Lesotho was feeling the impact as the health sector had been reliant on US aid for some time, but that 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,” said Mpotjoane. “We have to accept that. But to refer to my country like that, it is quite unfortunate.”
TimesLIVE reports the US government’s foreign assistance website does not list any financial support specifically for LGBTQ+ rights in Lesotho. Instead, about $120m (R2.2bn) in aid was spent on health and population programmes in 2024, including $43.5m (R800.61m) dedicated to tackling HIV/Aids.
Reuters
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