During a multinational meeting aimed at solidifying a peace agreement between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, President Donald Trump joked about the two African nations "killing each other" and bungled leaders' names.

Trump was joined by Rwandan President Paul Kagame and Democratic Republic of Congo President Felix Tshisekedi at the newly renamed Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace building in Washington, DC, on Dec. 4. The visting central African leaders met to sign new deals aimed at expanding economic cooperation and to hammer out the details of a U.S.-brokered peace agreement that the two nations agreed to in June but have not yet implemented.

In remarks at the event, Trump mispronounced both leaders' names and made a joke about Presidents Kagame and Tshisekedi coming together to forge peace.

Trump jokes Rwanda, DRC leaders will soon hug, hold hands

“These two gentlemen are very smart and I think they liked each other a lot. I spent time with them," Trump said, followed by scattered laughter and audible reactions from the audience.

“Some people may be surprised," Trump said. "I think they’ve spent a lot of time killing each other and now they’re going to spend a lot of time hugging, holding hands and taking advantage of the United States of America economically, like every other country does.”

Trump continued, gesturing to the two leaders sitting beside him onstage.

“Look at them," he said, smiling. “Look at the way they love each other.”

Several in the audience laughed and clapped, along with Kagame. The Democratic Republic of Congo’s leader, Tshisekedi, did not laugh at the apparent joke.

Leaders of Angola, Burundi and Kenya were among those in attendance, along with representatives of Togo, Uganda, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

Rwanda, DRC fighting continues despite Trump deal

The two nations have been in a decades-long conflict with each other since the 1990s, including two major regional wars in 1996 and 2003 that left millions dead. The brutal Rwandan genocide occurred in 1994, during which at least one million people were killed. The aftermath of that event helped launch the 1996 war between Rwanda and the DRC, according to the United Nations' educational outreach program on the conflicts.

Kagame has been president of Rwanda since 2000, and served as vice president after the 1994 genocide. Tshisekedi was elected to lead the DRC in 2018 as a member of the country’s oldest and largest opposition party, which his father founded.

The Trump-backed agreement between the two countries has not led to a significant drawdown in fighting, which sparked up again earlier this year. Fighting continued in the DRC on Thursday, Dec. 4, Reuters reported, and a spokesperson for the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group accused government troops of bombing several civilian areas.

More than 7,000 people died in the fighting in 2025, and more than 450,000 had been displaced, as of February, according to the DRC government, as the M23 rebel group seized large parts of eastern Congo. The eastern area of the country is home to valuable mineral deposits.

After the Dec. 4th event, Trump told a reporter who asked about ongoing fighting that the conflict between the two countries may start to wind down “very quickly.”

“It’s going to be a great miracle,” he said. “These two gentlemen are leaders. They're great leaders, and they're going to prove that in the coming months and years, and I think you'll see very immediate results. I have confidence that that's what's going to happen.”

Comments come after Trump called Somalia 'no good'

Trump's comments about the deadly conflict came a week after he posted a message on social media about immigrants from a different East African nation, Somalia, and two days after calling Somalia "no good" in a Dec. 2 Cabinet meeting.

Trump was referring to reports that dozens of Somali immigrants had been charged with fraud for allegedly stealing $1 billion from Minnesota public programs in the Cabinet meeting remarks.

“I don’t want them in my country,” Trump said. “Their country is no good for a reason. Their country stinks.”

Contributing: Francesca Chambers of USA TODAY; Reuters.

Kathryn Palmer is a politics reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach her at kapalmer@usatoday.com and on X @KathrynPlmr. Sign up for her daily politics newsletter here.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump fumbles African leaders' names, jokes about 'killing each other'

Reporting by Kathryn Palmer, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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