Donald Trump’s travel ban, a purportedly security-focused measure largely targeting African nations and Muslim-majority countries, underscores his administration’s ignorant and potentially destructive approach to a continent with growing global influence.
In announcing the ban, Trump said it’s meant to ensure the U.S. only allows people to enter who “do not bear hostile attitudes toward its citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles.”
Whereas the Biden administration took steps to ingratiate itself with African leaders and slough off some of the American paternalism that has driven some African nations closer to Russia and China in recent years, Trump’s administration seems to have doubled down on an outmoded strategy of exploitation, conspiratorial brow-beating and ostracism.
In just the first few months of Trump’s second term, his administration has pressured African nations to permit Elon Musk’s Starlink internet service to operate within their borders and has sought to use war-torn nations in Africa — including a country known for its human rights abuses — as landing spots for people booted from the U.S. as part of Trump’s mass deportation plan. The president also personally turned the Oval Office into a screening room for bigoted conspiracy theories when he invited the president of South Africa to the White House and then bombarded him with false allegations of “white genocide” being committed in his country.
Needless to say, this hasn’t helped the U.S. build on its rapport with African nations.
Needless to say, this hasn’t helped the U.S. build on its rapport with African nations. And fundamentally, what that could mean for the U.S. is that a continent full of countries that American officials have pinpointed as crucial partners in our geopolitical strategies related to security and commerce could drift further toward our adversaries.
That’s certainly the vibe given off by the African Union Commission and its dozens of member states, which denounced Trump’s travel ban and warned about its potential impacts.
“The Commission remains concerned about the potential negative impact of such measures on people-to-people ties, educational exchange, commercial engagement, and the broader diplomatic relations that have been carefully nurtured over decades. Africa and the United States share mutual interests in promoting peace, prosperity, and global cooperation,” the commission said in a statement, adding: “The African Union Commission respectfully calls upon the U.S. Administration to consider adopting a more consultative approach and to engage in constructive dialogue with the countries concerned.”
University of Michigan economics professor Justin Wolfers identified one clear way that Trump’s travel ban could harm the American economy.
“One obvious economic implication of the latest travel ban is that genuinely international conferences will no longer be held in the U.S.,” he wrote on X. One obvious economic implication of the latest travel ban is that genuinely international conferences will no longer be held in the U.S. And that may just be the tip of the iceberg. It’s also true that the materials used to make batteries in everything from cutting-edge cars to phones and computers most often come from African mines. Which is to say: Trump’s cold shoulder toward African nations could have dire consequences for America’s future, particularly with regard to the economy and U.S. national security.
Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog.
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