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President Donald Trump heaped praise upon Liberian President Joseph Boakai during a meeting at the White House for his “beautiful” ability to speak English. Trump’s over-the-top admiration suggested the U.S. president was completely unaware that Liberia’s official language is English.
“Such good English,” Trump told Boakai during the meeting with West African leaders Wednesday. “Where did you learn to speak so beautifully? Where? Were you educated, where?”
After Boakai responded that he learned it in Liberia, Trump said, “That’s very interesting. It’s beautiful English.”
Social media users were quick to mock Trump’s apparent ignorance on the matter, with some pointing out that the country was founded in the 1800s after a group of white Americans, known as the American Colonization Society, sent formerly enslaved Black people to settle in that area of West Africa.
As History.com notes, “The society was made up of white men from the north and south, including slave owners who felt that free Black people undermined the institution of slavery, and should be sent away. Others in the society felt that slavery should be gradually dismantled, but that Black people could never live freely with white people.”
Liberia’s capital is Monrovia, named for U.S. President James Monroe, who was a member of the society.
What’s “very interesting” is that Trump seems oblivious to Liberia’s unique connection to the United States.
Watch a clip of the exchange below.