ABUJA, Nigeria — African leaders may have been quick to congratulate Donald Trump on his 2024 election, professing a desire for mutually beneficial partnerships, but there are meager expectations that his presidency will change things for this continent of more than 1.4 billion people.
In the wake of Trump’s win, Kenya’s William Ruto said his country “stands ready” to deepen its ties with Washington. Nigeria’s Bola Tinubu spoke of a second Trump administration ushering in an era of “earnest, beneficial, and reciprocal” cooperation.
Still, observers say African countries — once described by Trump as “shithole countries” — are definitely not going to be high on his to-do list.
Low priority or not even a concern?
U.S. foreign policy has not made Africa a priority for a long while, beyond seeing the continent through the lens of countering rivals such as Russia and China, said Charles Ray, chair of the Foreign Policy Research Institute’s Africa Program. President Joe Biden talked about Africa as a key partner, said Ray, who served as the U.S. ambassador to Zimbabwe between 2009 and 2012, but not much action followed those words.
Africa “will be at the very bottom of (Trump’s) list of priorities” and any U.S. action on the continent would likely be driven by his “transactional, ego-driven leadership style,” Ray added.
Many experts agree, citing Trump’s “America First” strategy.
Murithi Mutiga, program director for Africa at the Crisis Group, said the president-elect is “a committed isolationist and clearly wants to pull back” on various fronts across the world.
Some say there are deals to be made, even in Africa
J. Peter Pham, Trump’s former special envoy to Africa’s Great Lakes and Sahel regions, said the next Trump presidency may look for a “win-win” situation in Africa. That could include a renewal of the African Growth and Opportunity Act, which grants eligible African countries duty-free access to U.S. markets, Pham said during a Voice of America broadcast. However, U.S. lawmakers have been asking questions about whether African countries are complying with conditions under the program — or if they are undermining U.S. foreign policy interests and national security, Pham said.
In 2023, U.S. Ambassador Reuben Brigety accused South Africa, one of the biggest beneficiaries of the program, of providing weapons and ammunition to Russia for its war in Ukraine and its professed neutral stance on the war was brought into question.
Basically, you don’t “kick America in the teeth” in ways that raise questions about compliance with such deals, Pham said.
Those that do “will be treated as pariahs,” said Ray.
Africa’s myriad health and other crises, abortion, and LGBTQ+ rights
The top concern is that the next Trump presidency will cut funding. In many parts of Africa, such cuts could be critical for millions of girls and young women whose reproductive health and choices are heavily supported by U.S.-funded programs.
“The situation is already bad for girls (and) it will turn into a disaster without these services,” said Valentine Damitoni, a mother at 18.
She regularly visits a local clinic in Zimbabwe’s capital of Harare to receive a contraceptive under a U.S.-funded program that allows her to return to school without fears of becoming pregnant again.
Max Primorac, a former acting deputy administrator at the U.S. Agency for International Development — one of Africa’s biggest development aid donors — criticized some of the agency’s programs in Project 2025, a 900-page blueprint proposed by the conservative-leaning Heritage Foundation to reshape the federal government. In particular, Primorac criticized USAID programs that “promote abortion, climate extremism and interventions against perceived systematic racism.” The document is said to align closely with Trump’s vision — although he has distanced himself from it.
Kiron Skinner, the head of policy planning at the U.S. State Department during Trump’s first term in office, recommended in the document that in Africa, America should “focus on core security, economic, and human rights” rather than impose “radical abortion and pro-LGBT initiatives.”
New realignments in Africa, turning to Russia and China
In Africa’s volatile Sahel region, soldiers are increasingly booting out elected presidents and riding anti-Western sentiments to sever ties with long-standing allies like the United States and France, while turning to a new friend: Russia.
China, which casts infrastructural loans to African countries as mutually beneficial cooperation, rarely interferes in internal politics of the recipients’ countries. Russia, the continent’s biggest arms supplier, is often in bed with Africa’s military juntas.
Both countries, like America, have shown huge interest in Africa’s rich mineral resources. “The problem historically has been that the U.S. and the West viewed Africa as a problem” to be solved, Mutiga said, while China and others “saw it as an opportunity to be grasped.”
Will Trump backpedal on Biden’s pledges?
The Biden administration announced last December that it had invested at least $22 billion in Africa and promised to do more. Trump, during his first term, continuously sought to slash foreign affairs funding, sometimes by as much as 30%.
Analysts are concerned about whether key U.S. projects in health, security, and development would be implemented under Trump — especially at a time of worsening hunger and resurgent threats to democracy in Africa. For many ordinary Africans, Trump is just a distant leader who can’t do much about their everyday problems.
“Trump … is not going to save us from hunger caused by our government,” said Isah Mohammed, a fruit seller in Nigeria’s capital of Abuja.
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Associated Press reporters Farai Mutsaka in Harare, Zimbabwe, and Sam Metz in Rabat, Morocco, contributed to this report.