Boakai has not attacked Trump for complimenting his command of English language

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Tina S. Mehnpaine

Claim: A viral video on social media claims Liberia’s President Joseph Boakai attacked U.S. President Donald Trump for complimenting his English speaking skills. 

Verdict: False! The viral video is AI-generated and not real. Reverse image searches show that the video is a manipulation of an original video of Boakai from 2017. 

Full Text

A video has gone viral on social media showing Liberian President Joseph Boakai verbally attacking US President Donald Trump for complimenting his command of the English language. 

The video, published by various accounts such as here, here, and here, claims to show Boakai describing Trump’s compliment as an insult. 

“Yesterday’s exchange with Trump shocked and angered me. I never thought I would be insulted like this on an international stage,” he is heard saying in part of the video. 

Boakai was one of five African leaders invited to the White House for a US-Africa summit focused on trade and regional cooperation. Other attendees included President Brice Oligui Nguema of Gabon, President Bassirou Diomaye Faye of Senegal, President Umaro Sissoco Embalo of Guinea-Bissau, and Mohamed Ould Ghazouani of Mauritania. 

Following a submission by Joseph Boakai, President Trump responded,

“Thank you, and such good English, beautifully. Where did you learn to speak so beautifully? Where were you educated, where in Liberia?”

Trump continued: “Nice. Very interesting, beautiful language. I have people at this table who can’t speak nearly as well.”  

Trump’s remarks dominated international headlines, with major outlets such as the New York Times, NBC News, and CNN publishing about the interaction. 

According to the Associated Press, some Liberians have taken offence at the comments.  

Since then, many videos have suggested President Boakai has condemned the US President for his remarks.

Given the diplomatic row this video is likely to trigger, DUBAWA decided to fact-check it.

Verification

To verify this claim, we run the video through InVid verification to generate keyframes. Some of the frames were then used in Google reverse image searches. 

The results showed that the viral video matched an original video of Joseph Boakai’s interview with VOA in Washington in 2017. 

Screenshots from the viral video and the one from the 2017 interview, side by side, showed evidence of exact matches.

For instance, the curtains’ colour, the flag’s position in the background, the chair’s texture and colour, and Boakai’s attire are all exact matches. 

A manual inspection of the viral video revealed unnatural movements, including his blinking and poor lip-syncing with the audio, indicating that the video had been manipulated. 

When the researcher conducted multiple searches on Facebook, LinkedIn, and X accounts, as well as those of Liberia’s Executive Mansion and Ministry of Information, both of which are responsible for disseminating official government information, no press release or posts by President Boakai responding to Trump’s compliment were found. 

Two of Liberia’s leading newspapers, Daily Observer and Frontpage Africa, have also not published the president’s reaction to Trump. 

According to Liberia’s Foreign Minister, Sara Beysolow Nyanti, no offence was taken over Trump’s comments, and the president was honored to attend the summit. 

Conclusion

The viral video of President Boakai attacking America’s Donald Trump for complimenting his command over the English language is fake. The video is an AI manipulation of a 2017 interview Boakai granted to VOA in Washington.