Speaking at a rally earlier this month, President Donald Trump described Somaliland as a “totally different country.” It was not a mistake. Somaliland President Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi had visited Washington, D.C., in September 2026. He did not meet Trump, but he met several White House aides and some of Trump’s closest Senate allies. He also gave interviews, which Trump likely read.
The case for Somaliland is compelling. It is democratic. It has rejected China, while Somalia and Djibouti embrace Beijing. Somaliland is the only country in the Horn of Africa with broad security; there has not been a terrorist attack in Somaliland since 2008. While Djibouti squeezes the United States out of its counterterror base by inviting four other countries to create stand-alone bases, including China’s first overseas naval base, the Somaliland port of Berbera and its adjacent airport provide better facilities without the caveats that Djibouti and its Chinese supporters demand.
What Trump — or any other U.S. president — says reverberates throughout the region. Trump’s comments that Somaliland was a different country and that Somaliland should change its name to increase recognition of that reality became the talk of the region.
Enter Ervin Massinga, a career foreign service officer and the current U.S. ambassador to Ethiopia. In an interview with The Reporter, Ethiopia’s top private weekly news magazine, chose not only to speak about Somaliland — a country outside his purview — but then contradicted Trump.
Asked by the reporter about Trump’s comments about Somaliland being a different country, Massinga declared, “There has been no change in United States policy.” He added, “In general, we see a great deal of misinformation on social media, and in the past weeks we have seen an increase in intentional efforts to mislead and confuse. I consider this to be something quite dangerous and incendiary, and I would urge everyone to double-check and triple-check sources, intentions, and facts before coming to conclusions.”
In effect, Massinga is telling his Ethiopian and broader African audience to ignore the White House and the president’s comments. He seeks to dismiss active changes in policy outside the State Department, including the stationing of U.S. Africa Command representatives in the Somaliland capital, Hargeisa, Treasury Department efforts to end Somaliland’s economic isolation, and the State Department’s promises to treat Somaliland separately from Somalia in travel warnings.
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Massinga can live in a fantasy world in which the Houthis have not endangered shipping through the Bab el Mandeb, China has not expanded its influence in Djibouti, and in which al Shabaab terrorists are not winning the war against Somalia proper. Put simply, Massinga effectively dismisses the president to promote a failed status quo.
Massinga spoke out of turn and outside of his mandate. Two previous U.S. ambassadors to Somalia have had their assignments curtailed largely because of their failure to promote Washington’s interests over Mogadishu’s. Trump should now demand that Massinga join them.
Michael Rubin is director of policy analysis at the Middle East Forum, a distinguished fellow at India’s Usanas Foundation, and a contributor to Beltway Confidential.