Forging a diplomatic endeavour among many states aims to achieve a quid pro quo status in international relations. While these relations strive to be on equal footing, mutual respect is highly encouraged among leaders, especially in their statements toward other states. A slight slip of the tongue might provoke a diplomatic row, if not an act of "bad blood."
However, U.S. President Donald Trump, who hosted West African leaders from Senegal (Bassirou Diomaye Diakhar Faye), Liberia (Joseph Boakai), Guinea-Bissau (Umaro Mokhtar Sissoco Embaló) and Mauritania (Mohamed Ould Ghazouani) on July 9, exuded a demeaning, condescending, and false bravado. The worst of all came when Trump purportedly praised Boakai’s English in a statement: “Such good English, it’s beautiful. Where did you learn to speak so beautifully?” While this might come out as praise to some, in diplomacy, it speaks volumes about how one party perceives the other.
Earlier this year, Trump announced the cutting of U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) funding in most African states, resulting in the termination of 5,341 foreign aid projects in countries like Comoros, Sierra Leone, Morocco, the Gambia, Eswatini, Mauritania, Senegal and Tunisia Perhaps this might have prompted the recent meeting between leaders from West Africa and Trump.
The White House stated that Trump's decision to close USAID aims to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse. Whereas the move to cut such funding received mixed reactions, especially from American and some African netizens on X.
One user praising Trump's decision said, “I commend president @realDonaldTrump for shutting down USAID...It was basically another discredited entity where only the LORDS OF POVERTY ENRICHED themselves with no positive impact to the intended beneficiary in Africa...”
This statement resonates with many citizens who wish to see African heads of state become self-reliant on their own economic models rather than exacerbating economic dependency syndrome among African states. While some might perceive it as a cruel gesture, self-sufficiency comes at a price. As William Shakespeare wrote in Hamlet, "I must be cruel only to be kind," a message that might encourage many African leaders to forge equal footing in sustainable state relations.
Notwithstanding, the way Trump has continued to demean most African countries and their leaders speaks more about his character and his prima donna personality. For instance, in 2018, he called African countries "s...hole countries" while addressing migration issues. In March 2025, he mocked the Kingdom of Lesotho in his remarks about cutting aid to Africa: "Eight million dollars to promote LGBTQI+ in the African nation of Lesotho, which nobody has ever heard of."
Such utterances and rhetoric continue to persist, prompting some African leaders, such as Ibrahim Traoré, President of Burkina Faso, to shift their alliances from Western countries like the U.S. to Russia and Türkiye, who treat these states with respect and as equals.
As if that were not enough, in May 2025, Trump weighed in on the false issue of a "white South African genocide," which led him to grant refugee status to around 59 white South Africans in the U.S. The false "genocide" narrative, pushed by the billionaire Elon Musk-Trump bromance before their recent fallout, attracted international attention. Later that month, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who visited the White House, was ambushed with a video claiming a white farmers’ genocide; however, fact-checking revealed that the video did not depict anything close to that claim.
The disrespect toward African countries from the Trump administration extends to the visa and travel ban issue. As of June, 36 countries received notices about vetting their travelers or facing a ban from the U.S. Of these, 25 were African countries. Later, travel bans and partial travel restrictions were issued to 19 countries, with African nations topping the list.
Ten countries, including Chad, Congo-Brazzaville, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Burundi, Sierra Leone and Togo, are affected. Although the U.S. is trying to expand its foreign policy, it does not treat most African states as equals and restricts them. This is hypocritical, considering its desire to maintain military operations in some of these African countries. For instance, there are around 4,000 U.S. military personnel stationed at Camp Lemonnier and Chabelley Airfield in Djibouti, as well as a military presence in Kenya (Mandabay), Senegal, Gabon, Niger, Chad and Somalia. Additionally, many U.S. multinational corporations operate in African countries, and U.S. citizens can often travel to most African countries visa-free or obtain a visa on arrival. This contrasts with 2024 statistics showing a 60-80% visa refusal rate from West and Central Africa and a 50-65% visa refusal rate from East Africa.
International relations uphold the principle of reciprocity among countries. However, this is rarely the case in relations between the U.S. and most African states. It often appears to be a one-sided venture where one state demeans the other. Political scientists would argue that there is an imbalance in diplomatic relations because similarity does not always mean identical, and the same applies to state relations. Power dynamics always play a role in state-to-state relations, allowing one state to call certain shots. However, in the case of the U.S. and most African nations, tolerating acts such as ridiculing heads of state speeches under the guise of "compliments" should not be tolerated, as it sets a precedent for how other states in Africa, and the continent as a whole, are treated.
