If during his first term (2017-2021), Donald Trump had shown only limited interest in African issues (1), the priority now given by the United States to commercial diplomacy nevertheless reflects a form of interventionism more marked explaining why Africa has regularly been invited to the American public agenda since the Republican’s return to the White House in January 2025.
Lhe strategic foundations of American policy in Africa undeniably reveal a certain long-term continuity: the United States has never made the African continent a strategic priority on the same level as Europe, the Middle East or the Asia-Pacific.(2). In fact, Washington’s involvement in Africa has most often alternated between phases of sustained cooperation and periods of relative indifference, depending on rivalries between international actors, international crises and economic interests.(3). After 1945, Africa was seen, above all, as a space of ideological rivalries against a backdrop of the Cold War against the Soviet Union, and the 1990s were rather a period of relative disinterest in politics American external position vis-à-vis the African continent, then considered “peripheral”(4). From the 2000s onwards, the American-African relationship has become more complex, particularly in the light of the reconfiguration of security issues (hybrid threats, fight against terrorism, etc.) covering both military, but also economic and development aspects. Since the tenure of George W. Bush(5)each administration has therefore regularly reassessed and reoriented the United States’ engagement in Africa according to the evolution of its national and international priorities.
In this context, what should we think of Donald Trump’s African diplomacy since his return to the presidency of the United States at the start of 2025? Africa, which was not a priority of the Joe Biden administration (2021-2025) in terms of foreign policy, does not seem, a prioribecoming one for the new Trump administration. However, it seems to regularly appear on the American public agenda. Indeed, from the dismantling of the American Agency for International Development (USAID), of which African countries were the main beneficiaries, to the restriction of access to visas (travel ban), through the uncertainties concerning theAfrican growth and opportunity act (AGOA(6)), Trump’s new mandate does not spare Africa and sometimes even takes an abrupt posture, like the tense exchanges between Donald Trump and Cyril Ramaphosa during the South African president’s visit to Washington last May.(7). Placée sous le slogan « Trade, not aid »(8) and presented as aiming to serve the mutual interests of the United States and Africa, the new approach of the Trump administration actually hides other, more strategic objectives: countering the influence of international competitors, notably that of China, and securing access à  certain natural resources of the continent, including several critical minerals such as cobalt, coltan, platinum or lithium. Note, however, that this more transactional approach than ever has not fundamentally changed the United States’ perception of Africa in terms of the fight against terrorism and the migratory threat, these two issues continuing to largely inspire their actions on the continent.(9).
Commercial diplomacy against a backdrop of struggle between great powers
Contrary to the impression of improvisation left by Trump’s first term, the new foreign policy of the United States seems, this time, to better integrate the ongoing competition with China and other international players such as Russia.(10). Washington’s current diplomatic treatment of Africa must be read in the broader context of the American president’s trade offensive across the world and his charge against multilateralism.(11). Indeed, faced with the growing influence of China, materialized by massive investments in infrastructure and a dominant economic presence in many African countries(12)the United States adopts a more assertive posture implying a sudden change of reference, Africa no longer being considered as a simple beneficiary of development aid, but as a commercial partner in its own right. Recent budget cuts imposed on the majority of USAID programs(13)as well as the launch by the State Department, last May, of an economic and commercial diplomacy strategy vis-à-vis the continent, fit perfectly into this logic.(14). Finally, the policy of the Trump administration is quite explicit: it involves strengthening the American economic presence in Africa through increased exports and investments, ensuring the security of the supply of strategic resources, reducing trade deficits and, incidentally, “promoting a mutual prosperity »(15).
