(11 Jul 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Monrovia, Liberia - 10 July 2025
1. Various of newspaper front page showing U.S. President Donald Trump’s meeting with African leaders
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Linda Jones, shop owner:
++PART OVERLAID BY SHOTS 1 & 3++
“I do not think he knows Liberian history. Because if he knew Liberian history, he would not ask that question. Because, yes, if he knew Liberia is an English-speaking country, he would not – I don’t know whether it was a question, or, I don’t know. But, I don’t think it was necessary.”
3. Various of Monrovia street scenes
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Monrovia, Liberia - 10 July 2025
++VIDEO CALL++
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Richlue Burphy, former USAID partner:
++PART OVERLAID BY SHOTS 3, 5, 6++
“Liberia was founded by free slaves from the United States in the 19th century, precisely in the 1820s. You had the American Colonization Society that helped to resettle former slaves from the Americas to West Africa. And they were the ones that led to the establishment of the republic, the nation that we call Liberia today.”
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Monrovia, Liberia - 11 June 2025
5. Various of Monrovia street scenes
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Monrovia, Liberia - 14 June 2025
6. Liberian flag in Monrovia
STORYLINE:
U.S. President Donald Trump’s praise of the “beautiful” English of Liberia’s President Joseph Boakai drew confusion Thursday in the English-speaking African country and umbrage over what many considered condescending remarks.
“Such good English,” Trump said to Boakai during an event at the White House, with visible surprise. “Such beautiful English.”
Although English has been the official language of Liberia since the country’s founding in the 1800s, Trump asked Boakai where he had learned to speak the language “so beautifully,” and continued as Boakai murmured a response. “Where were you educated? Where? In Liberia?”
The exchange took place Wednesday during a meeting in the White House between Trump and five West African leaders, amid a pivot from aid to trade in U.S. foreign policy.
Boakai’s government said it took no offense at Trump’s remarks, but other groups in Liberia described the remarks as an insult.
The White House declined to comment on whether Trump was aware that English was Liberia's official language. Massad Boulos, the president's senior adviser for Africa, 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.
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