Trump advisers refine their Africa strategy
Shelby Talcott and Yinka Adegoke
The Trump administration is overhauling how it handles aid to Africa with an aim towards dislodging China from “priority” sectors in the region — not from the entire continent.
The administration’s approach, which Nick Checker, the State Department’s head of the Bureau of African Affairs, outlined in an interview with Semafor, comes as Trump advisers face some criticism over their new global health aid structure, which leans into cutting bilateral deals and focuses more on the Western Hemisphere and Asia-Pacific regions than Africa.
The administration, according to Checker, doesn’t see the need to push out China’s influence everywhere in Africa — a mindset it has also adopted in places like Venezuela, where the US president recently said China is “welcome” to invest in the country’s oil industry.
The US is not going to compete “dollar for dollar” with China on projects such as building roads, Checker told Semafor. “But if it’s a priority sector — or in the mineral space, for instance, and it’s about supply chain resilience — that’s an area where we’d actually want to be actively competing.”
The US government’s current “focus areas” for the continent, Checker added, include “commercial diplomacy,” requiring more from recipient nations to improve “self-reliance,” finding “new and innovative ways for assistance,” and making efforts to resolve and prevent conflicts in the continent.
While the administration is still sorting out exactly which African countries it wants to make a concerted effort to shift away from China, so far the US has focused on countries including Kenya, Angola, and South Africa.
“We’re being strategic about what areas and projects matter most,” Checker added. “In terms of dislodging China from certain sectors, being competitive, it comes down to the US value proposition, and making sure that countries understand it.”
The US announced deals with numerous African countries last month, totaling over $11 billion in health aid over five years. That number represents a drop compared with past US aid, and the administration has made clear it feels the system needed to focus more on furthering US interests.
The State Department is also defending its decision to increase focus on other areas of the world, while maintaining it’s still doing plenty with regards to Africa. Checker noted in the interview that he is heading to Mali soon to discuss counterterrorism cooperation, one of several trips senior officials have made to the region.
The Trump administration says many African countries have welcomed its new strategy.
“I think [Secretary of State Marco Rubio] has been very clear on this about a sort of back-to-basics approach in terms of diplomacy,” said Checker. “With a lot of African countries [we went] in and were lecturing, moralizing about different things. And that’s not what they want to hear. Security, economic growth — that’s what they want. That’s what they care about. These are issues where we can actually find a lot of common ground.”
Last month, a leaked email sent to US diplomats from Checker said that countries should be reminded “of the American people’s generosity in containing HIV/Aids or alleviating famine.”
The email also described Africa as “a peripheral — rather than a core — theater for US interests.” But it added: “That does not at all mean Africa is irrelevant; it means the stakes are often limited, indirect, and largely negative and should not distract.”
“The president’s met with 11 African leaders, so we are very much engaged — it just looks a little bit different,” Checker said.
Know More
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is hosting an inaugural critical minerals ministerial in Washington this week, bringing together officials from several mineral-rich African countries as the White House sharpens its push to counter China’s dominance of key supply chains around the world.
DR Congo President Félix Tshisekedi is expected to attend, as Washington and Kinshasa advance talks on a strategic minerals partnership. Ministers from Guinea, Kenya, and Zambia are also slated to participate, according to people familiar with the plans.
The meeting follows earlier Biden-era efforts such as the Minerals Security Partnership, though some projects have stalled. Critical minerals remain a priority for the Trump administration, which singled out the sector as one of few that were spared recent tariffs.
For African governments, the stakes are higher-value processing and refining — and whether the US will back that ambition by attracting investment.
“There’s a lot of American companies that are looking to invest in Africa, and they just don’t necessarily know how to go about it,” Checker said, adding that the administration has “retooled” some embassy personnel and is training certain individuals in “commercial diplomacy.”
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Semafor’s China editor explains how African nations got stuck with Beijing despite a decidedly mixed track record on the continent.