A single line about four countries at a Georgia campaign rally has sparked a diplomatic protest in Tripoli, Libya, where officials summoned America’s top envoy and demanded an apology.
Libya’s Foreign Ministry summoned U.S. Chargé d’Affaires Inga Heemink on Sunday, Oct. 25, 2026, to deliver a formal protest over remarks President Donald Trump made a day earlier at a rally in Perry, Ga., which the ministry called “offensive.”
Trump, 80, made the comments while attacking Sen. Jon Ossoff, a Georgia Democrat, over immigration measures put forward in the Senate in June. Ossoff, he told the crowd, had “personally sponsored a bill to bring armies of migrants from terror-infested countries like Libya, Yemen, Haiti, Somalia.”
He then reached back to a phrase from his first term. “Remember what I called them? S–thouse countries,” Trump said at the rally, a reference to his 2018 Oval Office comments.
Two Rival Governments, One Grievance
Libya has been split between rival governments in the east and west since the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime leader Moammar Gadhafi, followed by years of war and instability. Both administrations condemned Trump the same day.
The foreign ministry of the Tripoli-based Government of National Unity rejected any statements that “undermine the dignity of its people or diminish their standing,” and objected to Libya being pulled into American “electoral debates.” The Presidential Council, which ordered the summons of the top U.S. diplomat in Tripoli, demanded an “explicit apology and correction.”
The rival Government of National Stability, seated in the eastern cities of Tobruk and Benghazi, demanded a formal apology of its own. A committee of the House of Representatives, the eastern parliament, asked Washington for an official clarification, describing the remarks as diminishing Libya’s standing.
Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah, who heads the Tripoli government, posted on social media that his country’s sovereignty and his people’s dignity are not material for American election fights. His government values the relationship with the United States “on the basis of mutual respect,” he added.
The Bill Was About Haitians
The legislation Trump attacked is not about Libyan migrants at all. He apparently referred to S. 4814, which would shield only qualifying Haitian migrants already living in the United States from deportation under his immigration crackdown. The measure brings no one into the country.
The Perry rally was one of his campaign stops before the Nov. 3 midterm elections, where he backed Republicans including Rep. Mike Collins, who is challenging Ossoff for his Senate seat.
Trump used the same Georgia event to claim that Denmark had given Greenland to the United States. He repeated the claim Sunday, Oct. 25, at a rally in Michigan, saying the United States owns the Arctic territory and works it with Denmark. An agreement his administration signed with the Danish government on Sept. 22 expands American military access to Greenland, and its terms explicitly reaffirm Denmark’s sovereignty and Greenlanders’ right to self-determination, transferring no ownership. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has been adamant on that point. Trump has repeatedly threatened to annex the island since taking office for a second term in 2025.
Praise on Truth Social, No Apology
Trump posted on Truth Social on Sunday night, Oct. 25, with praise for Libyans, stopping short of an apology. “The Libyan people are proud, resilient, hospitable, and deserving of peace and prosperity,” he wrote.
He said Washington respects the sacrifices brave Libyans made fighting ISIS, calling the group the “common enemy” of both peoples, and reaffirmed his commitment to stronger ties with Libya. The post also backed unifying Libya’s institutions and moving toward national elections. “Libya cannot remain a corridor for illegal migration, and this must end now,” Trump wrote. He gave no timetable, announced no initiative and offered no apology.
An Epstein Jab From Benghazi
The eastern-based government in Benghazi went further in its own statement, describing Trump as “one of the visitors to the filthy Epstein Island,” according to local press reports. It offered no evidence for the claim.
