Trump praises Liberia’s president on his mastery of English – his native tongue and the African nation’s official language

Washington — President Trump complimented the president of Liberia during a White House meeting on Wednesday on his English-speaking skills, despite English being the official language of the West African nation and the visiting leader’s primary tongue. Mr. Trump hosted a White House lunch with African leaders and, after brief remarks from Liberian President Joseph Boakai, he asked the business graduate where he had picked up his linguistic acumen.

“Thank you, and such good English,” Mr. Trump said, asking: “Where did you learn to speak so beautifully? Where were you educated?”

Boakai — who, like most Liberians, speaks English as a first language — indicated that he had been educated in his own country.

Mr. Trump, who was surrounded by French-speaking presidents from other West African nations, continued on the theme, telling Boakai: “It’s beautiful English. I have people at this table can’t speak nearly as well.”

The Liberian leader was facing away from the media, making his countenance hard to gauge — but his laconic, mumbled response hinted at awkwardness. On the websites of two of Liberia’s most-read daily newspapers, there was little mention of Mr. Trump’s remarks about Boakai’s English mastery.

The FrontPageAfrica outlet didn’t mention the brief exchange, while the Daily Observer said Mr. Trump, “impressed by Boakai’s remarks, jokingly inquired about his eloquent English.”

U.S. engagement in Liberia began in the 1820s, when the Congress — and the slaveholder-funded American Colonization Society — began sending freed slaves to its shores. Thousands of “Americo-Liberian” settlers followed, declaring themselves independent in 1847 and setting up a government to rule over a native African majority.

The country has a diverse array of indigenous languages and a number of creolized dialects, while Kpelle-speakers are the largest single linguistic group.  

Boakai himself can read and write in the indigenous Mendi and Kissi languages, but he converses in Liberia’s official tongue and lingua franca — English.

Mr. Trump has a contentious history when it comes to relations with African nations.

There was a diplomatic backlash during his first term in office after Sen. Dick Durbin said Mr. Trump had referred during a meeting to the entire continent as a collection of “s***hole countries.” Mr. Trump denied using the expression.

Just weeks ago, Mr. Trump echoed and amplified debunked claims of a “white genocide” in South Africa that have been spread by far-right groups and his former aid Elon Musk. He subjected visiting South African President Cyril Ramaphosa to a video in the Oval Office — with news media present — that presented misinformation to defend his controversial policy of offering rapid U.S. refugee status to white Afrikaner farmers.