Donald Trump thanked King Mohammed VI on Sunday after a video posted on Truth Social presented the Tiznit-Dakhla road as the “President Donald J. Trump Highway.” Moroccan authorities had yet to officially confirm the naming.
“Thank you to His Majesty Mohammed VI, the highly respected King of Morocco. What a tremendous honour!” the US president wrote, adding that he hoped to travel the full 1,055 kilometres of the route soon.
The video links the name to Washington’s recognition of Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara in 2020. It also presents the road as a corridor leading to Dakhla, its future Atlantic port and, beyond it, the landlocked countries of the Sahel.
At the time of publication, neither the Royal Palace, the Moroccan government nor state news agency MAP had formally announced the change. Several Moroccan media outlets and the Dakhla-Oued Eddahab Regional Investment Centre have nevertheless used the new name.
The video gives the infrastructure a broader political and economic meaning. “Some roads shorten distances. Others connect the future,” the narrator says.
A tribute to the 2020 decision
The name refers to December 2020, when the Trump administration recognised Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara, a disputed territory largely controlled by Rabat and claimed by the Algeria-backed Polisario Front.
The decision gave Morocco the long-sought backing of the United States on the issue. It came alongside the normalisation of relations between Morocco and Israel.
The video credits Donald Trump’s “historic courage” and says the “Moroccan Sahara” has since entered “a new era of peace, dialogue and prosperity.”
It also recalls the long history of ties between Rabat and Washington. Morocco opened its ports to American ships in 1777, before the two countries signed their Treaty of Peace and Friendship in 1786.
1,055 kilometres and nearly $1 billion
The route connects Tiznit to Dakhla through Guelmim and Laâyoune. The video puts its cost at nearly $1 billion.
The Tiznit-Laâyoune section runs for around 555 kilometres. The film highlights its dual carriageway, 16 major engineering structures and a 1,648-metre viaduct in Laâyoune.
The remaining roughly 500 kilometres reach Dakhla along a widened and reinforced national road. The final missing section, between Tiznit and Guelmim, opened in January 2025, completing the continuous link.
The video says the full route is equivalent to 36% of Morocco’s Atlantic coastline and 7% of Africa’s Atlantic seaboard. It describes the road as an axis connecting “cities, ports, markets and people.”
Dakhla, the Atlantic and the Sahel
The narrative extends to the future Dakhla Atlantic port, described as lying only a few days by sea from major maritime gateways in Europe, the Americas and sub-Saharan Africa.
The road itself does not continue into the Sahel. The video instead places it within a wider network centred on Dakhla, its future port and overland corridors running through Mauritania.
It therefore links the infrastructure to Mohammed VI’s initiative to provide landlocked Sahel countries with access to Moroccan port facilities on the Atlantic.
“Some roads connect places. Others connect the future,” the film concludes, describing the “Donald J. Trump Highway” as “the peace road to prosperity.”
Until Rabat issues a formal announcement, however, the new name remains based on Donald Trump’s post and the accompanying video.