Trump 2.0 and the Future of Global Africa

The election of Donald Trump as President of the United States in the 2024 election has set in motion a series of actions which hold profound implications for the future of Global Africa.  The purpose of this commentary is threefold. First, it seeks to explain, in its ideological and policy dimensions, the specific historical epoch which has been ushered in by the Trump Presidency. Secondly, it endeavors to show the real and potential impact of the domestic and foreign policies of Trump 2.0 for Global Africa.  Finally, the commentary closes with some prescriptive guidelines of ‘What Is To Be Done’ by African states and peoples at home and abroad to not only survive, but to reposition the continent for success and to inoculate themselves from the vagaries of US politics, and from global uncertainty associated with the end of US and Western European world domination. 

The Ideological Bases of Trump 2.0 

The task of explaining the ideological and policy dimensions of Donald Trump’s second term is rendered relatively easy by the experience of the first. The main difference now is that his largely redefined role for the USA in the world-economy and his withdrawal from multilateral governance frameworks on issues like climate change, nuclear proliferation, regional trade, and global war, has been magnified and emboldened by his second mandate, and by the open and direct support from the US billionaire elite. 

In addition, Trump’s second term has been buttressed by the presence of the more cohesive ideological and programmatic agenda of Project 2025.  Sponsored by the Heritage Foundation, a right-wing think tank, and written and orchestrated mainly by Russel Voight, Trump’s Director of the Office of Management and Budget in both terms, Project 2025 has not only provided a blueprint and a database of personnel for taking over the government by conservative, rightwing Trump loyalists, but it has also provided the agenda itself: the rejection of any affirmative action policies that were intended to correct historical wrongs, the abolition of social interventionist measures which were intended to cushion the poor and vulnerable, and an openly racist and anti-black white supremacist Christian Right agenda.^[1]

Trump 2.0 is unapologetic, billionaire-led right-wing fascism built upon the mass support of historically racist and conservative sections of the American working class by the promise of actions against immigrants, Blacks, women, the poor, and LGBTQ+ communities.  It is fascist in the classical sense of an alliance between the very wealthy and the uninformed, opportunistic sections of the working class glued together by appeals to race and nation at the exclusion of scapegoated ‘outsiders’ at whose expense a future prosperity is promised. 

In his first term, he had openly declared that he did not want poor people ‘in Cabinet economic jobs’.^[2] In his second term, he has appointed the most collectively wealthy group of executive officials. Included amongst these are Linda McMahon (net worth 3.2 billion), a professional wrestling promoter, with no background in education but who has been appointed as the Secretary for Education; Howard Lutnick, Secretary for Commerce (net worth 1.5 billion); Warren Stephens, Ambassador to the UK (net worth 3.4 billion); Leandro Ritzio jr, Ambassador to the Organization of American States (net worth 3.5 billion); and Elon Musk, Head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) (net worth 400 billion).^[3] It was reported that the Trump win ‘sparked a record $ 64 billion gain’ for the world’s ten richest people.^[4]

A historically specific feature of Trump 2.0 is his political empowerment of the white South African, Elon Musk, the world’s wealthiest person, whose understanding of politics was shaped by apartheid.  He has been allowed a free (or perhaps bought) hand in the remaking of the US domestic state while continuing to support fascist parties in Europe.  Musk’s closeness to Trump has placed South Africa’s progressive policies like land reform or the sanctioning of Israel before the International Criminal Court, directly in the crosshairs of the Trump Presidency.  Trump has already offered refugee status to white South Africans in sympathy with their opposition to the African National Congress government’s land redistribution aspirations.^[5]

Aligned with the fascism of Trump 2.0 is the crude actualization of neo-liberal assumptions. Whilst neo-liberalism has been enjoying ideological hegemony since the fall of Soviet-Union Communism in the 1990s and the rise of the so-called ‘Washington Consensus’, never before had a leading capitalist state attempted to single-mindedly apply unmitigated neo-liberal assumptions to its government.  Today, DOGE is using heartless algorithms to destroy the civil service both in its regulatory and service aspects, so that the billionaire-led private sector can take over critical functions for profit.  When we consider that 18.6 percent of the federal workforce and the military are Black and that 30 percent of the federal workforce are veterans, then the direct impact of DOGE on the lives of Black people in the US becomes immediately apparent.

Finally, the ‘ignorance’ and ‘inexperience’ of the Trump Presidency cannot be ignored as part of the new environment.  “Ignorance” here refers to the general lack of understanding of what is government, how government works, and what distinguishes public from private life. This ‘ignorance’ is manifested as a form of hubris, in the short term, and can do untold damage to the Black underclass through the destruction of the protective social features of the state.  However, in the long term, it can result in self-destruction of the very oppressive system against which Black people have been struggling. 

The humiliation of Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Oval Office is a classic example of this dual reality of short-term pain existing alongside potentially long-term benefits for Global Africa.  Despite having placed Ukraine on the front line of the post-Cold War US military expansion into Eastern Europe and the antagonizing of Russia, once Trump signaled his intention to shift towards rapprochement with Russia, Zelenskyy was subjected to public ridicule by US Vice President JD Vance who asked “have you said thank you once this entire meeting?”^[6]  On one hand, it was an embarrassing display of diplomatic ineptitude and incompetence, but on the other hand, it signaled the destruction of the post-war political order and announced the US’s break with its post-war obligations to Western Europe

Similarly, while the defunding and closure of USAID by DOGE can, in the short term, potentially harm the African communities dependent on its sponsored humanitarian services, given the role of USAID as an imperialist tool of hard and ‘soft power’, as seen in the claim by US Senator Scott Perry that USAID had been used to support the military activities of Boko Haram, (a claim denied by US ambassador to Nigeria, Richard Mills)^[7] its dismantling by Trump can, in the long run, seriously undermine US power. 

This has opened new spaces for African freedom, which our governments and people must urgently seize. 

Implications for Policy and the Impact on Global Africa

At the US domestic level, there is little doubt that the common feature of Trump’s policies is their anti-blackness.  The destruction of the public sector, the reductions in health care and education, the undermining of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), the manufactured attacks on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), and the anti-immigration policies all aim to make America White Again, and all place the black poor directly in crosshairs of the Trump 2.0 agenda. 

The anti-DEI executive order has already undermined black psychic liberation through the decision by several federal agencies to ban activities associated with Black History Month.^[8] Despite Trump’s promise to include at least ten Blacks in a yet-to-be-established National Garden of American Heroes,^[9] it remains unfulfilled and has not reversed the damage to Black consciousness wrought by his anti-DEI actions.  Even though white women are amongst the most visible beneficiaries of DEI policies,^[10] Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) anti-DEI approaches have cast a wide net and have fallen heavily on Black people. Relatedly, the large percentage of veterans and public servantswho are Black has exposed DOGE as a blunt, anti-black instrument. In addition, given that Black people are more susceptible to health challenges and less able to afford private health care and education, they are most vulnerable to the cutbacks in health and social welfare. 

Trump’s foreign policies are no less consistent with fascism.  Fascist global politics is often hostile to notions of trans-national cooperation and instead is aimed at overcoming ‘disadvantage’ and achieving ‘greatness’ through force.  Today, the US’s perceived ‘humiliations’ include trade arrangements with Canada, Mexico, and China; Europe in the North Atlantic Treaty Agreement (NATO); and US participation in global climate, nuclear proliferation, and other agreements.  Trump’s response to these ‘disadvantages’ is through punitive tariffs, the threat of territorial grabs (Panama and Greenland), and unilateral withdrawal from global institutions.

Most devastatingly for global white supremacy, is Trump’s overturning of the USA’s role in the post-1945 global architecture.  While it was the post-war order that facilitated African, Caribbean, and Asian independence, it was also the moment of neo-colonial extraction of African wealth, the planting of US bases globally, the overthrow of democratically elected governments, and the frustration of Kwame Nkrumah’s vision of a unified Africa.  More recently it witnessed the decimation of Libya, Iraq, Sudan, and Syria, opening spaces for a new round of European domination of the Middle East through Israel. By radically rapidly redefining the US’s role in the world, mainly due to the weight of the burden of empire, Trump appears to be having his own ‘Gorbachev moment’, and is dissolving most of the critical global pillars which had sustained US power since 1945.

The Future of Global Africa: What is to Be Done?

History provides several examples of when dislocations in the dominant global order have created spaces for African freedom. The Haitian revolution followed the disruptions caused by the Anglo-French navigation wars, the French revolution, the American War for Independence, and the decline of imperial Spain.^[11]  The disruptions of the inter-war years and the Russian revolution gave rise to Garveyism, Ethiopianism, and the Pan-African activism of WEB Du Bois, George Padmore, and Kwame Nkrumah.^[12]  Finally, the decimation of France and England and the rise of the USSR and the USA after World War II allowed for neo-colonial independence of Africa and the Caribbean. 

 This lesson of history informs Global Africa to shed no tears over Trump’s disruption of the world order.  It was never intended for African success, and it was one where African states and peoples exercised little agency.  Today, African countries should seize this moment of Trumpian adjustment to regain autonomous agency as independent actors in the post-US world order.

The first order of business is to remove the last vestiges of European White Supremacy as a basis for African economic and political decisions.  There is an urgent need for an All-African Conference out of which can emerge a unified African position on a new political, and economic architecture to govern the African world, without any reference to any external ‘great power.’  Africa must move from passive observers to active shapers of the world economy and society in which we wish to live. 

African leaders must immediately reverse existing agreements in which they have been placed as mere servants of global imperialism, as seen for example in the role played by Kenya in sending its “police force” to advance US and European colonial control of Haiti or in the decision by Rwanda’s Paul Kagame to offer his country to Britain for the housing of migrants. 

Indeed, a recent reminder of the new kinds of Africa-centred approaches needed by African leaders in the new Trump 2.0 environment, was offered by Willy Mutunga in Pambazuka News (Issue 891), with respect to the United States-Kenya Strategic Trade and Investment Partnership (STIP) launched on 14 July 2022, and currently being negotiated.  Lamenting that ‘none of the current political leaders in Africa has resurrected the Pan-African liberation politics and spirits of Nyerere, Nkrumah, Gaddafi, Amilcar Cabral, Thomas Sankara, and Professor Cheikh Anta Diop’, Mutunga reminds the Kenyan negotiators that ‘Bilateral trade between Kenya and the USA is not as significant as the trade between Kenya and the other members of the East African Community. Indeed, Kenya’s trade with the US is estimated at US $321 million while Kenya’s trade with Uganda alone is US $300 million.’ Mutunga therefore advises his Kenyan counterparts to place Kenyan and African interests above any neo-colonial impulse to bend to US power.^[13]

The February 28^th Oval Office humiliation of Volodymyr Zelenskyy is a cautionary tale to African leaders who hitch their wagons to US power. That Ukraine was abandoned by the same forces which fanned the Russia war, should be yet a further urgent reminder to Africa to act independently in its own self-determined interest.  As Azu Ishiekwene has noted, Africa’s experience teaches a different, nuanced lesson. From the betrayals of Haile Selassie during Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia to the murder of Patrice Lumumba of Congo, the continent learnt the hard way that ‘only fools test the depth of a river with both feet’.^[14] The betrayal of Ukraine has only reinforced this lesson. 

Finally, no such self-determined creation of a For-Africa world economy can occur without a radical recentering of the African women and men as the basis for development. Walter Rodney has advised that in much the same way that ‘European science met the needs of its own society, and particularly those of the bourgeoisie” Africans must begin to place the development of the African person at the centre of all their social, economic, and political practices.  It will require a total overcoming of colonialism which, among other things even had a “stunting effect on Africans as a physical species’.^[15] This overcoming of Europe and white supremacy will demand the transcending of the inherited and limited forms of Western democracy which has been imposed upon Africans by Europeanized elites, stripping them of dignity, personhood, political experience, and economic autonomy and making them pawns to the whims of Western capitalist states.

The current balance of global forces ushered in by the new Trump Presidency, while it may be the most dangerous for Africans, offers a timely opportunity for the Black world to achieve the dream of liberation which has animated the Pan-African consciousness of Africans everywhere since the late 19^th Century. 

ENDNOTES

^[1] GPAHE 2025. ‘Project 2025: The far-right playbook for American Authoritarianism. Available online:

https://globalextremism.org/project-2025-the-far-right-playbook-for-ame…

^[2] CNN 2017. ‘Trump: I just don’t want a poor person in Cabinet economic jobs’. Available online: https://www.cnn.com/2017/06/22/politics/donald-trump-poor-person-cabine…

^[3] Claypool, Rick. 2025. ‘Trump’s billionaire cabinet represents the top 0.0001%’. Available online:

https://www.citizen.org/article/trumps-billionaire-cabinet-represents-the-top-0001-percent/. All amounts are in US dollars

^[4] Bloomberg 2024. ‘Trump win sparks record $ 64 billion gain for world’s ten richest people’. Available online:  https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-11-07/trump-s-election-win-supercharges-net-worth-of-world-s-richest-by-64-billion?embedded-checkout=true\

^[5] CBS News 2025. ‘Trump orders U.S. to prioritize refugee resettlement of South Africans of European descent’. February 8, 2025. Available online:

 https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-orders-u-s-refugee-resettlement-of-a…

^[6] Dale, Daniel. 2025. ‘Fact Check: 33 times Zelensky thanked Americans and US leaders’, CNN Feb. 28. Available online: https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/28/politics/volodymyr-zelensky-thankful-us-…

^[7] Daybreak Africa. 2025. ‘USAID denies funding Nigeria terror groups’. Available online: https://www.voaafrica.com/a/usaid-denies-funding-nigeria-terror-groups/…

^[8] NBC News. 2025. ‘Federal agencies bar Black History Month and other “special observances”’. Available Online: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/defense-agency-bans-black…

^[9] Fields, Ashleigh. 2025. ‘Trump vows to add Black icons to proposed National Garden of American Heroes’,  The Hill. Available online: https://thehill.com/homenews/race-politics/5156665-trump-vows-to-add-bl…

^[10] Ellis, Nicquel. 2025. ‘DEI policies benefit many groups, not just Black and brown communities’, in CNN. Available online: https://www.cnn.com/2025/02/08/us/dei-programs-diversity-list/index.html

^[11] James, CLR. 1963. The Black Jacobins: Toussaint L’Ouverture and the San Domingo Revolution. Vancouver: Vintage Books.

^[12] Adi, Hakim. 2018. Pan-Africanism A History. London: Bloomsbury.

^[13] Mutunga, W., ‘A letter to Dr. David Ndii’, Pambazuka News, 6 March 202. Available online: https://www.pambazuka.org/A-Letter-to-Dr-David-Ndii

^[14] Ishiekwene, Azu. 2025. ‘Lessons from Africa: How Ukraine can navigate the perils of conflict and diplomacy’, DailyMaverick. Available online: 

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2025-03-10-lessons-from-afr…

^[15] Rodney, Walter. 2023. ‘Colonialism as a system for underdeveloping Africa’, in Verso Blog. Available online: https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/news/4810-colonialism-as-a-system-for-underdeveloping-africa?

Tennyson S.D. Joseph is a Caribbean national and a member of the Global Pan-African Movement (GPAM – North America).  He is a former Senator in the Parliament of St. Lucia and is currently an Associate Professor of Political Science at North Carolina Central University.