Middle East & Africa | Trumpafrique

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

What a meeting with five leaders says about his administration’s interest in the continent

A Kenyan reads a morning newspaper with reports on the U.S. election on front page
Photograph: AP
|6 min read

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.

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