President Donald Trump has said, for the third time in a month, that the United States funded the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD).

He made the claim at a White House dinner reception for Republican senators over the weekend that “Ethiopia built a dam mostly with American money.”

Two similar claims by the US president earlier this month were dismissed by the Ethiopian government as untrue.

“I was watching this as it’s going up. It’s a massive dam. Is that going to be blocking the water to the Nile. Anyway that shouldn’t have never sort of happened the way it happened but financed by the United States of America and all things. We got that solved. It’s going to be solved pretty long term,” Trump was quoted as saying.

Earlier Trump, in a post on his Truth Social platform, stated that the “massive Ethiopian built dam” was “stupidly financed by the United States of America” and “substantially reduces the water flowing into The Nile River.”

Aregawi Berhe, Director General of the Public Participation Coordination Office for the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), strongly dismissed Trump’s claims as “groundless.”

Funding for the dam on the River Nile was largely provided through crowdfunding and other fund-raising methods with the participation of the Ethiopian people and government.

Ethiopia recently announced that construction of the GERD which commenced in 2010 has been completed and that Africa’s biggest hydroelectric dam would be inaugurated in September.

Egypt and to some extent Sudan have been opposed to the project, expressing fears that it might compromise their share of fresh water the Nile, the world’s longest river.

Political experts are warning that Trump by apparently siding with Egypt might be working on an agenda which would go against the interest of Ethiopia.