Foreign Affairs Minister Lejone Mpotjoane of Lesotho told the news agency Reuters on Wednesday that his nation would be “happy” to invite President Donald Trump to visit after he joked that “nobody has heard of” it during his address to a joint session of Congress the night before.
Trump mentioned the small African nation, a mountainous kingdom surrounded entirely by South Africa, during a segment highlighting what he called “appalling waste” of American taxpayers’ dollars on expensive international projects of seemingly little value to American interests. Trump added some humor to his lowlights of government spending, including joking that “nobody knows what that is” in referring to $40 million spent on “sedentary migrants” and then mentioned spending in Lesotho.
The federal government, he noted, spent “$8 million to promote LGBTQ+ in the African nation of Lesotho, which nobody has ever heard of,” in addition to another “$8 million for making mice transgender,” among other expenditures. The line elicited laughs from many attending the address.
Mpotjoane, speaking to Reuters, described the reference to his country as “quite insulting.”
“I’m really shocked that my country can be referred to like that by the head of state,” the top diplomat said.
Mpotjoane nonetheless extended an invitation to Trump, and all Americans, to visit the country.
“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,” he asserted.
Mpotjoane also lamented that Trump cutting funding for programs in Lesotho was “unfortunate” for his country’s interests but added that it was Trump’s “prerogative to do that.”
In remarks to the Agence France-Presse (AFP), Mpotjoane similarly described himself as “shocked and embarrassed” by the reference. He added, “We are not taking this matter lightly” and would officially issue a protest to Washington.
Lesotho is a constitutional monarchy that achieved its independence from Britain in 1966, using its mountainous terrain to help establish its sovereignty and distinguish itself from South Africa. America “immediately” established diplomatic relations with it, according to the State Department, and has maintained friendly albeit minimal ties to the country since. The United States does maintain an embassy in Maseru, the national capital. Washington does not currently maintain an ambassador in the country; the embassy is run by Charge d’Affaires Thomas Hines.
Lesotho maintains a Tourism Ministry but has not engaged in any mass international campaigns to attract visitors. The only video on the Tourism, Environment, and Culture Ministry’s YouTube account shows efforts to clean up environmentally challenged sites in the country.
Tourism influencers have nonetheless highlighted the country as offering breathtaking natural scenery and the novelty of being far from a popular tourist destination. One such site described Lesotho, much as President Trump did, as a “country no one knows exist[s].”
The United States has a significant modern history of investing in Lesotho. In 2024, the State Department listed expenses in Lesotho in its official integrated country strategy for the nation.
“The U.S.-Lesotho bilateral partnership is founded on the more than $959 million in assistance since 2007 from the President’s Emergency Fund for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR),” it noted, “$662 million from past and prospective Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) compacts, and the Peace Corps Volunteers program in country since 1967, with growing ties in the security sector.”
The country strategy identified Lesotho as “vulnerable to criminal entities and competitive foreign powers such as the People’s Republic of China” due to high levels of poverty, a significant HIV crisis, government corruption, and other factors.
Lesotho is indeed an enthusiastic Chinese ally. It is a member of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a global debt-trap scheme in which Beijing offers predatory loans to poor countries, intended to be used to develop cost-prohibitive infrastructure projects. The BRI was originally intended to reconstruct the Ancient Silk Road that connected eastern China to western Europe, a route with no known relationship to ancient or contemporary Lesotho.
Lesotho Prime Minister Motsoahae Thomas Thabane visited China in 2018 to join the BRI, giving remarks in which he “expressed confidence” in his country’s decision to join the program. Lejone, the foreign minister, emphasized a year ago that Lesotho was hoping to see China invest more in the country’s “infrastructure, agriculture, energy, and other areas to promote bilateral ties,” according to China’s state-run Xinhua News Agency.
“We have a very good relationship with China, and we are celebrating the 30-year relationship,” Lejone was quoted as saying. “We have major roads and road networks, power generation facilities, Macero [Maseru?] Hospital, parliamentary buildings, and many others in Lesotho.”
Many BRI projects are presented as shortcuts to urbanization, building massive transport sites in anticipation that locals will build around them, such as the Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) in Kenya and the New Gwadar International Airport in Pakistan. These projects often fail to attract the predicted attention from locals and siphon millions of dollars out of government coffers, leaving the countries scrambling to pay their debts to China.
In Lesotho, the Chinese government boasted in June of completing the “Ha Mpiti to Sehlabathebe Road,” promoted as a “vital infrastructure project” enhancing “connectivity.” Chinese state media footage of the road show it sprawling through vast expanses of rural, barely populated territory, raising questions regarding demand for such a project.
More recently, on Monday, Foreign Minister Lejone Mpotjoana welcomed a million-dollar shipment of rice and wheat to Lesotho, identified as humanitarian aid.
“In welcoming this generous donation, on behalf of the Government of the Kingdom of Lesotho, Hon. Mpotjoana pointed out that this food aid will go a long way in alleviating the hardships faced by the most vulnerable communities,” the Ministry shared, “and further that Basotho are honoured by this unwavering support by the People’s Republic of China, whose kindness and commitment to Lesotho exemplify the spirit of the Ministry shared international cooperation and solidarity, and commitment to the well-being of the people of Lesotho.”
The Honourable Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Relations, Hon. Lejone Mpotjoana, together with the…
Posted by Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Relations Lesotho on Monday, March 3, 2025
The United States renewed a program known as the Millennium Challenge in 2022, which became active in 2024, that secured funding for Lesotho not to exceed $269,738,000.
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