U.S. President Donald Trump said on July 26 that a road in the Western Sahara—a territory that has been occupied by Morocco since 1979—has been named after him.
“Thank you to Highly Respected Mohammed VI, the King of Morocco—Such a Great Honor!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“I look forward to traveling the entire length of this Great Highway someday, hopefully soon!” Trump added, above an official video of the $1 billion road, which runs from Tiznit in southern Morocco to Dakhla, a major port being built in the Western Sahara region.
There has been no official confirmation of the naming of the 655-mile-long highway from the Moroccan government in Rabat.
In the video on Trump’s Truth Social post, it states that the highway will link the new $1.1 billion port being built in Dakhla with northern Morocco, and by extension Europe and the rest of North Africa.
“It opens territory long defined by distance, unlocking the region’s rich potential, and laying the foundations for a new era of development,” says the video’s narrator.
The video also refers to the Western Sahara as Morocco’s “Dakhla province.”
Morocco was one of the first countries to recognize the United States, in 1777, although it was later conquered by France, only becoming independent in 1956.
Western Sahara only became Moroccan territory in 1979, but only France, Spain, the United States, and Israel recognize the annexation.
On Dec. 10, 2020, Morocco agreed to recognize Israel for the first time, and signed an agreement normalizing relations 12 days later.
US Recognized Moroccan Ownership
On the same day, Trump announced that the United States was formally recognizing Moroccan ownership of the Western Sahara.
“The United States believes that an independent Sahrawi State is not a realistic option for resolving the conflict and that genuine autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty is the only feasible solution,” Trump wrote.
The United States also announced plans to open a consulate in Dakhla “to promote economic and business opportunities for the region.”
Originally a Spanish colony, Western Sahara saw Madrid withdraw its forces following the death of dictator Francisco Franco in November 1975, and under pressure from neighboring Morocco and Mauritania.
Hundreds of thousands of Moroccan volunteers, backed by 20,000 soldiers, marched into the Western Sahara in November 1975 to stake the claims of King Hassan II—King Mohammed VI’s father—to the territory.
The Polisario Front, a guerrilla army representing the indigenous Sahrawi people, carried out attacks on both Moroccan and Mauritanian forces, who occupied the north and the south of the country respectively.
Mauritania withdrew and abandoned its claims in 1979, and Morocco took over the entire territory, despite opposition from the Polisario Front.
A huge 1,700-mile wall, or Berm, was constructed in the east of the country in the 1980s to protect the Moroccan forces from rebel attacks.
A ceasefire came into effect in 1991, but it collapsed in November 2020 when the Polisario Front resumed its military operations.
In October 2025, the U.N. General Assembly adopted its annual resolution, expressing support for negotiations toward a mutually acceptable political solution, which it said would “provide for the self-determination of the people of Western Sahara.”
‘Last Colony in Africa’
But in June 2026, several Sahrawi speakers called on the U.N.’s special committee on decolonization to liberate what they called “the last colony in Africa.”
“For over six decades, the Sahrawi people have been waiting for the U.N. to fully assume its responsibility in the decolonization of Western Sahara,” Polisario Front representative Sidi M. Omar said.
The Polisario Front has not officially commented on the naming of the President Donald J. Trump highway.
But it reposted a post on X from Stephen Zunes, a politics professor at the University of San Francisco, who wrote, “In recognition of U.S. support for its illegal and repressive occupation of the nation of Western Sahara, the Moroccan regime is naming a new coastal highway designed to help consolidate its control after Donald Trump.”
The Epoch Times reached out to the Moroccan Foreign Ministry for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.
