Donald Trump's approach to Africa is very, well, African

Hindustan Times

09-07-2025

It IS EASY to make a case that Donald Trump cares little about Africa. On July 1st he closed the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), absorbing an institution that spent 40% of its budget on sub-Saharan Africa into the State Department. That department and the White House have yet to fill their senior Africa-related posts. AFRICOM, America's military hub on the continent, speaks euphemistically of a new 'African-partner-led' approach to security. The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which granted duty-free access to the American market for African exporters, expires on September 30th. Of the 19 countries subject to Mr Trump's latest travel ban, ten are African.
Yet Mr Trump is showing surprising enthusiasm for meeting his African counterparts. On July 9th he will host presidents from five African countries in the first of what is mooted as a series of meetings. In May he met Cyril Ramaphosa, South Africa's president. The leaders of Congo and Rwanda, which signed an American-brokered peace deal in June, may also soon visit. A much bigger summit involving dozens of African leaders is planned for September.
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The upshot is a paradox. Under Mr Trump America will do a lot less in Africa than it has done for decades. But African leaders will get more chances to have the ear of the American president.
Mr Trump, who has called Namibia (or maybe Zambia) 'Nambia' and said of Congo 'I don't know what that is', may end up hosting more African leaders than any of his predecessors. Data from Judd Devermont, a former official covering Africa in the White House, show that George W. Bush holds the record, welcoming an African leader on 3% of his working days in office—or roughly once a month (see chart). If judged on his first term Mr Trump would be bottom of the list. In his second he may move higher up.
The meeting on July 9th is a sign of his personalised and often random approach. Beyond being from coastal states in or close to west Africa (Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mauritania and Senegal), the guests have little in common. There is no regional hegemon among them. Some have mining prospects, but they lack the mineral resources of, say, Congo.
Instead, the meeting is the result of lobbying by Umaro Sissoco Embaló, president of Guinea-Bissau. The former Portuguese colony of 2m people is one of Africa's less important states; indeed it is probably the third-most important of the three African countries named Guinea. One of about 10% of all countries globally without an American embassy, it is best known as a coup-prone narco-state.
Yet Mr Sissoco Embaló fancies himself as Mr Trump's Africa whisperer. The meeting is in keeping with his hyperactive approach to political networking. He has made around 300 foreign visits since taking power in 2020; many of them, according to one African leader, without being invited. An opposition figure from Bissau says that he will go to Washington with the message: 'I'm your man, tell me what you want me to do to help you.'
For Mr Sissoco Embaló the meeting is a way of trying to win support for his efforts to stay in power. Mr Trump, who is as transactional as your typical African leader, felt it was worth an hour of his time to have lunch. The other guests were added later, seemingly on the basis that they were from the same rough neighbourhood without being of first-tier importance.
The Trump administration is clear that its priority in Africa is business. 'We no longer see Africa as a continent in need of handouts, but as a capable commercial partner,' says Troy Fitrell, the outgoing senior official for Africa in the State Department. The goal is 'to increase US exports and investment in Africa, eliminate our trade deficits and drive mutual prosperity.' If more business for America means less business for China, all the better.
To that end American ambassadors will have more of their performance assessed on whether they can seal deals for American firms. Government agencies that offer financial incentives to American firms to invest in Africa (and other places) have been told to get money out of the door more quickly.
The White House is hoping the leaders will bring ideas for projects. 'I really hope that these heads of state come prepared and don't expect that spontaneous good things will happen,' says Joshua Meservey of the Hudson Institute, a right-wing think-tank. 'If they are unprepared and the meeting doesn't go well, then it will make it harder for other African presidents.'
The culture of the Trump administration is familiar to many African leaders, argues Alex Vines of Chatham House, another think-tank. Neo-patrimonialism, a term used to describe how in post-colonial Africa formal state institutions exist alongside informal networks involving business associates and members of the same family or tribe, is a useful way of thinking about Trump world, says Nic Cheeseman of the University of Birmingham in Britain. Massad Boulos, father-in-law to Mr Trump's youngest daughter and a member of a Lebanese family with business interests in Africa, is the president's senior Africa adviser. Gentry Beach, a university friend of Donald Trump junior, is reportedly exploring a deal to invest in a mine in eastern Congo in the wake of the peace deal with Rwanda.
Yet it is far from clear that Africa benefits when American policy is all realism and no altruism. America has fallen behind China as African countries' main trading partner in large part because it has less to sell and less demand for the continent's natural resources. Most African countries lack leverage. 'Each deal is an appeasement mechanism,' argues Gyude Moore, a former Liberian cabinet minister. 'Something to stave off further deterioration of an already negative situation.' Except for some resource-rich countries, most will not be able to offset the impact of aid cuts and higher tariffs.
Some of the poorest countries in Africa have tried to gain advantage by offering to take migrants deported from America. These include Lesotho, whose textiles factories are downsizing because they depend on AGOA. On July 3rd the US Supreme Court cleared the way for eight migrants to be sent to South Sudan, though only one of the group is South Sudanese.
Mr Devermont notes that 'on balance' presidents with the most Oval Office meetings with African leaders left the largest impact on the continent. Mr Bush created PEPFAR, an anti-AIDS initiative. Kennedy set up USAID. Mr Trump's legacy, if he leaves one, will be defined by deals, not do-goodery.
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