GENEVA (AP) — The former South Carolina governor who now heads the U.N.'s World Food Program is lamenting how the media's focus on President Donald Trump is taking away attention from "real world" problems like famine in Africa and the Middle East.

WFP Director-General David Beasley, a Republican whose appointment in March was supported by the Trump administration, spoke to reporters Monday after his organization and the U.N. refugee agency updated an appeal for $1.4 billion to help refugees fleeing South Sudan.

Beasley says his team needs to "rise above all the confusion out there," particularly in high-donor states like the U.S.

He cited a U.S. media focus on "Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump, Trump!" and "very little information about the famines in Syria, northeast Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan (and) Yemen."