President Donald Trump was not known to be a sharp student in school. So it’s not particularly surprising that he would have forgotten the U.S.’s long history with Liberia, an African nation first settled by freed slaves from the U.S. that has had English as its official language since the 1800s.
However, that didn’t stop several Liberian commentators from speaking out in anger at Trump’s comments to Liberian President Joseph Boakai on Wednesday at the White House.
In an AP News report published on Thursday afternoon, the Liberian opposition leader said that Trump’s praise of Boakai’s English was “condescending” and “very disrespectful” to the Liberian president.
Foday Massaquio, who leads the Liberian Congress for Democratic Change, continued by saying that Trump’s comments “[prove] that the West is not taking us seriously as Africans.”
President Trump to Liberian President Joseph Boakai: “Thank you and such good English, such beautiful. Where did you learn to speak so beautifully, where? Were you educated, where? In Liberia?” pic.twitter.com/WZ2LR5JZcb
— CSPAN (@cspan) July 9, 2025
In a widely shared exchange during a meeting at the White House featuring five West African leaders, Trump responded to a comment from Boakai by asking him where he learned to speak English.
When Boakai answered that he had learned in Liberia, Trump said the following: “Well, that’s very interesting. Beautiful English! I have people at this table who can’t speak English nearly as well.”
English is the official language of instruction in Liberian schools. Boakai was born to illiterate parents as one of six children, and aid from the U.S. Agency for International Development (which the Trump administration has gutted) helped him attend the College of West Africa and then Kansas State University.
Boakai chuckled through the exchange with Trump, and in statements after the meeting, members of his administration deflected suggestions that Boakai was disrespected. The officials may have been wary of offending Trump, given that American support makes up almost 3 percent of Liberia’s gross national income—the highest percentage in the world.
Moses Dennis, a businessman from the Liberian capital Monrovia, said that “Liberia is a long-standing friend of the USA, therefore Trump should have understood that we speak English as an official language.”
Siokin Civicus Barsi-Giah, a close friend of former Liberian president George Weah—whose son, Tim, is a member of the U.S. Men’s National Soccer Team—referenced the country’s history as a refuge for former slaves while skewering Trump’s remarks.
Boakai was “mocked by the greatest president in the world who is leading the greatest country in the world,” Barsi-Giah said. He called the exchange “condescending and ridiculing.”
Trump’s comments also attracted their fair share of criticism within the U.S. as well. Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett, who has emerged as a leading critic of Trump and first lady Melania Trump, took to X to blast the president as “racist and wrong.”
Trump never misses an opportunity to be racist and wrong, and every day he finds a new way to be embarrassing.Asking the President of Liberia where he learned English when it’s literally the official language is peak ignorance.I’m pretty sure being blatantly offensive is not… https://t.co/Jhvf9dvqZE
— Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett (@RepJasmine) July 9, 2025
It’s hardly the first time Trump has raised eyebrows with comments about African countries. In 2018, he reportedly referred to the entire continent of Africa as a “s–thole” in an anti-immigrant rant in the Oval Office.
Massad Boulos, the president’s senior adviser for Africa and the father of his daughter, Tiffany Trump’s husband, Michael Boulos, stressed that Trump “actually complimented the language skills of the Liberian president,’’ and that everyone at the meeting was ”deeply appreciative” of the president’s time and effort.
When reached for comment, a White House spokesperson referred the Daily Beast to a statement from Liberian Foreign Minister Sara Beysolow Nyanti that “there was no offense from the Liberian president’s perspective.”
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