Lesotho was taken aback by US President Donald Trump’s mockery of the southern African nation, its foreign minister has said, vowing that the country was “not taking this matter lightly”.

Trump called Lesotho a country “nobody has ever heard of” as he defended his sweeping cuts in aid during an address to Congress on Tuesday. He singled out a past US aid project of “eight million dollars to promote LGBTQI+ in the African nation of Lesotho”.

“Which nobody has ever heard of,” he added, as Republican lawmakers laughed.

On Wednesday the Lesotho government was “shocked and embarrassed” by the comments, the foreign minister, Lejone Mpotjoane, told AFP.

“We did not expect a head of state to refer to another sovereign nation in such a manner,” he said.

The US has an embassy in the capital Maseru, and American volunteers serve in the popular Peace Corps programme.

“We are not taking this matter lightly,” Mpotjoane said, adding that they would send an official protest letter to Washington.

The country’s main LGBTQ rights organisation denied receiving funds from Washington, and which exact programme Trump was referring to remained unclear on Wednesday.

“We are literally not receiving grants from the US,” People’s Matrix spokesperson Tampose Mothopeng said.

“We have no idea of the allocation of eight million [dollars]” he said. The US government foreign assistance website did not list any financial support for LGBTQ rights in Lesotho, a nation of 2.3 million people. Instead, it indicated that about $120m had been spent on “health and population” programmes in the country in 2024, including $43.5m to tackle HIV/Aids.

The small mountainous kingdom surrounded by South Africa has the second-highest level of HIV infection of the world, with almost one in four adults HIV-positive. The US has committed more than $100%m since 2006 to anti-HIV/Aids efforts in Lesotho, according to the US embassy there. More than 30 non-governmental organisations warned in mid-February that the country’s HIV programmes were at risk of collapse after the loss of US foreign aid.

When Trump halted virtually all US foreign aid at the beginning of February, volunteers in Lesotho were instructed to stop any HIV-related prevention programming, according to emails reviewed by the Guardian at the time.

On Wednesday morning, Lesotho residents woke up confused at Trump’s comment.

“Ever heard of Kingdom in the Sky? Guess not, too busy golfing to notice,” journalist and activist Kananelo Boloetse posted on social media platform X.

“Lesotho’s the only country in the world entirely above 1,000 metres elevation, higher than your approval ratings ever got,” he posted, adding: “We’re here, we’re proud, and we’re not your punchline.”