Libya Summons U.S. Envoy Over Trump's Perry Rally Remarks; Trump Answers Sunday Night

Libya's foreign ministry summoned the U.S. chargé d'affaires on Sunday to protest rally statements by President Donald Trump that it described as "offensive," Reuters reported Monday. At Saturday's rally in Perry, Georgia, Trump said Senator Jon Ossoff had "personally sponsored a bill to bring armies of migrants from terror-infested countries like Libya, Yemen, Haiti, Somalia," and added, in a reference to remarks from his first term, "Remember what I called them?"

The ministry said it rejected any statements that "undermine the dignity of its people or diminish their standing," according to Reuters. Libya's rival administrations in the east and west both denounced the remarks, rejecting what they called attempts to draw Libya into "electoral debates."

Trump answered on Truth Social on Sunday night. The United States was committed to ties with Libya, he wrote, calling its people "proud, resilient, hospitable, and deserving of peace and prosperity." He added: "We respect the Libyan people and the sacrifices that brave Libyans made fighting ISIS, the common enemy of both our peoples, but Libya cannot remain a corridor for illegal migration, and this must end now."

The Perry rally was part of the president's closing midterm blitz — he stumped there for Republican Mike Collins against Ossoff — and this station covered the rally itself on Saturday. The diplomatic protest and the president's Sunday-night reply are new developments in that story, arriving eight days before the November 3 elections.