Trump’s economic agenda: A ‘yellow card’ to Africa

“America is back.” This was the opening statement of Donald Trump at his joint address to Congress a few days ago, which was greeted with loud applause by the Republicans. Many experts have cautioned that the Trump 2.0 would be the exact same pattern that defined his first. Following his historic return to the White House, I also shared this sentiment and speculated it in my piece titled, ‘Trump’s second coming: Is ‘Africa first’ agenda ever possible?’ which was published in TheCable on November 24, 2024. I had argued that to make any meaningful impression in the international system, the ‘Africa first’ agenda must be a top priority for our leaders. In the same vein, I emphasised that under Trump’s ‘America First’ policy, the world would witness, like with his first, promotion of ‘Americanism’ over ‘Globalism’. This is precisely what is playing out.

However, nothing prepared me and perhaps a flood of political and economic doyens for the harsh reality of the audacious and bullish fashion in which Trump carries on with his policy implementation not minding the effects on the world stage – he is far more aggressive in the pursuit of his agenda now than in his first term.

Trump’s reforms and executive orders which have painted him an outlier, particularly those targeting the USAID and his use of tariffs as an economic weapon, have engulfed the whole world like a violent storm. The Left, the mainstream media and a number of US allies have accused Trump of implementing these reforms in a horrific manner – protests seem to be gaining momentum and at the core is his slash of the USAID projects by a whopping 83 percent. While several ‘Trumpers’ and some independents believe they are a welcome development after years of bureaucratic bottleneck accompanied by waste and abuses which have spiked the US public debt profile to a massive 36 trillion dollars, many have kicked against him.

To the opposers, it’s a hideous and savage attack on the constitutionality of the republic and liberty of the people – a feeling of being thrown under the bus. Interestingly, in all of these, a handful believe Trump should be allowed to stew in his own juice while also accusing him of igniting a constitutional crisis with this economic agenda. Although, the manner in which he is going about it may be uncomplimentary to many – and I must say it is, the unknotting, streamlining and purging he has embarked upon should come as no surprise because he ran and campaigned vigorously on them.

The entire globe has been inundated with what appears to be the basic thrust of Trump’s economic policy – the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE)! A deluge of transactions has been described by Trump’s DOGE to amount to frauds at a level never seen before. The Democrats and many in the media are still doubting the veracity of these claims which DOGE wants the world to know runs into several hundreds of billions of dollars. Understandably, many would be sceptical of these gigantic findings until those culprits claimed to have benefitted from them are brought to book and successfully persecuted.

To the opposition, Trump must be stopped, and very fast too, otherwise, all Americans would be DOGEd before anyone knows it and that can’t be allowed to happen. One thing is very clear however, if all these DOGE discoveries are proven to be true, it can be inferred that the US isn’t immune to deep-seated corruption as they may want others to believe and therefore would have no moral justification to condemn countries especially those the developed nations refer to as third-world about the frightening state corruption in these countries has assumed.

Talking about the startling dimension of the insanely corruptive activities in many developing countries, especially the continent of Africa, the media was agog with so many news and buzzing headlines raging all over the place where a number of African leaders were reported to be whining – needlessly though, the halt imposed on most of the largesse received from the US government by the Trump administration, notably via the platform of USAID. This obviously have been far too long enshrined into the ‘blood and skin’ of these African nations. It is an act of cruelty and a blatant egregious violation of the oaths sworn to the people, how African leaders have impoverished their people even though many are sitting on such vast natural resources.

Research has it that Africa holds a hefty proportion (estimated to be about 60 percent) of the world’s natural resources: Arable land, 65 percent; Mineral reserves, 30 percent; Oil reserves, 12 percent; Gold reserves, 40 percent; Chromium and Platinum, 90 percent; huge reserves of Cobalt, Diamonds, Uranium, etc. The African continent isn’t poor. It is extremely wealthy. Infact, richer than one or two other continents. It is awash with a preponderance of resources – natural, capital and human resources. Regrettably, it is the people – ordinary and struggling Africans living in the continent that are stupendously poor. The case of the vulnerable Africans can be aptly summed up in the Yoruba saying, “Omo eleran ton jegun eran” – meaning the child of a meat seller who eats bones instead of meat. A very sad tale which has continuously been the lot of so many people in this part of the world.

This was underscored by Michael John Parenti, the American Political Science scholar who cannot be truer when he remarked, “Third-world is not poor. You don’t go to poor countries to make money. There are very few poor countries in this world. Most countries are rich, the Philippines is rich, Brazil is rich, Mexico is rich, and Chile is rich. Only the people are poor. But there are billions to be made there, to be carved out and to be taken.

There have been billions for 400 years! The capitalist, European and North American powers have carved out and taken the timber, the flax, the hemp, the cocoa, the rum, the tin, the copper, the iron, the rubber, the bauxite, the slaves, and the cheap labour. They have taken out of these countries. These countries are not underdeveloped, they’re overexploited!” This is the ugly state of things in Africa due to leadership deficit and corruption which have bedevilled the continent for many years.

Governance is typically shrouded in some sort of secrecy. Transparency and accountability are extremely scarce. And as Africans, we ain’t asking our governments to be perfect – none can ever be, anyway, just be transparent with us. Don’t be afraid to make genuine mistakes. Admit when you do and learn therefrom. Nevertheless, as Africans from all walks of life, far from it that we will look down on ourselves and continue to view our situation through the prism of poverty, created and sustained by the same set of people who pledged their allegiance to the constitutions of the individual nation-states to protect the people and utilise the common patrimony and resources to better their lot.

Instead, they have allowed unfettered access to our commonwealth in what media reports have shown to be orchestrated by a high-level conspiratorial and syndicated alliance, coordinated by the locals in cahoots with foreign entities. It is easy to whine and disparage the actions of another country, whose leader as far as he’s concerned is simply just making his country great again, because you have refused to put your own house in order. Our leaders know full well that the ‘carting away’ of our natural wealth only means that our jobs are offshored to other continents instead of onshoring them to improve the living conditions of the people.

Speaking during the East Africa Region Global Health Security Summit 2025, the former Kenyan President, Uhuru Muigai Kenyatta, warned African leaders against what he described as the “excessive dependence on foreign aid” after Trump paused federal aid globally. He was quoted to have said, “Excessive reliance often hinders a country’s long-term economic progress”. Furthermore, he said, “I saw some people the other day crying that Trump has removed funding. It is not your government, nor your country, why are you crying? He has no reason to give you anything, you don’t pay taxes in America.

This is a wake-up call for you to know what you’ll do to support yourselves. Let’s work together to bring an end to that. We need to remember the resources wasted when we kill each other. When we remember the lives lost in Sudan, all the way to the Sahel region, we’ve spent more money buying bullets than protecting our health”. Kenyatta concluded, “As Africans, we should not wait for others to come to our rescue”. This is the kind of attitude many expect our leaders to have. The type of attitude that gingers sublime economic policies, democratisation and humanitarism. If this had been their disposition decades ago and had been pursued vigorously, we certainly won‎’t find ourselves in this dead economic woods and quagmire that we are in.

Unfortunately, there are two things constant with virtually all the African states – leadership deficit and corruption, a recurring decimal threatening the sovereignty of many. So many of our leaders have been breaking several socioeconomic and development rules indubitably. The bane in this continent is that our leaders have refused to uphold the dignity of the rules designed to guarantee economic sovereignty needed to terminate the widespread poverty and hunger that are ravaging many – quite unsettling! They are quick to adopt these non-stop, never-ending loop of political platitudes and sloganeering, which change nothing but instead push the continent into deeper dark economic holes. The reliance on aid, grants and loans from abroad by most African countries even for the simplest of things that can be fixed domestically, seems like a bond that’s unbroken.

This however hasn’t gone without dissent from many well-meaning Africans who have issued veiled criticisms of our leaders and struggle to process the reason for their pandering. It doesn’t just sound right that we have to depend on external forces to solve issues we could have effortlessly handled had a conducive socio-economic environment been created by these leaders. Many of our leaders pivot when asked why they pander after the West and East but are quick to mention how they plan to bolster their countries’ economic positions via means unclear to many. Clearly, such rhetoric is simply political gibberish – mere talk which is cheap as there’s nothing on the ground to suggest the narrative would change. Our leaders must therefore take the hard choices and lead with an economic message in order to chart a path forward to prosperity and economic boom. Way too many rules – governance, economic, development, social infrastructure, leadership, security, etc, are being broken time and again and this has loomed so large on the continent’s development.

The scourge of insecurity, which has huge implications for investments and economic growth, is ravaging many parts of the continent, domestic production is next to nothing with the bulk of our natural resources shipped abroad in their natural state, and numerous governments ramping up debts due to needless spending, waste, frauds and abuses which seem to be the order of the day because revenue drive is literally non-existent. All these have distasteful consequences and one of the reasons the citizens are impoverished. It is as if our leaders are toying with our lives – like a cat would normally do with a mouse.

Many of our leaders have flubbed real bad and the economic nightmare in Africa is real. It is so because our leaders have allowed it and they must face the truth that the conditions are damning and cease gaslighting the citizens. The type of leadership evident in the countries they pander to for grants and aid, which has enabled those countries to build robust and strong economies, the likes of which is enabling them to give us ‘free monies’, is obviously lacking here. You can just imagine, with the abundance of resources prevalent here, the kind of transformation that would happen in the entire continent should they replicate the kind of leadership seen in these developed countries.

There are numerous accounts to suggest that there’s palpable fear. Scores of concerned Africans are growing increasingly worried regarding the approach of Trump over the next four years and its implications on the continent. The messaging of Trump has been unambiguous and crystal clear – he is pro-business and as such, whether fairly or unfairly, treats every relationship – diplomatic, personal, etc, as a transaction. Many could hardly wait – a weary and anxious wait, for what to expect in his second term. The last few weeks have marked remarkable skirmishes in trade wars between the US and several other countries – many of which are facing the brunt of Trump’s economic ire.

For some experts, if Trump could slam tariffs on some of America’s long-term trade allies, and foes alike, was undeterred and didn’t bat an eyelid even when the global community and the media vehemently kicked against it, it raises intriguing questions as to the possibility of unleashing this same type of treatment should he have the slightest reason to do so and take on Africa, whose economy is currently seriously wobbling. The consequences would be unfathomable and a massive grinder to the national treasuries of countless countries, which could set the continent behind by a long stretch.

Like in the game of football, yellow cards are issued by a referee for unruly behaviours or fouls committed by players. You get one once you break a rule – serves as a warning and such a player must be on the edge for the remainder of his/her time on the pitch. What the yellow card does to such a player is, as we describe in local parlance, ‘Borrow am sense’ – meaning to inject some common sense into the player, otherwise a second yellow card attracts a red card which is game over for the player. I will therefore liken the economic agenda of the Trump second presidency to issuing a ‘yellow card’ to the continent of Africa and its erring leaders to stop relying on others to do their jobs for them. They’ve got to stop breaking the golden rules designed to stimulate and build very strong economies. It is a clarion call and a dire warning to all our political leaders, who have obligations to the people, to brace up via bipartisan alliances, take urgent steps to industrialise and juice up the SMEs and manufacturing sector, and fix the systemic rots which have practically reduced us into mere beggars when we have all it takes to be self-sufficient. Else a ‘red card’ is in the offing in no distant future which may lead to the eruption of an economic reckoning.

How long shall African nations continue to be runts amongst the pack when we have what it takes – a humongous amount of natural resources, to project economic power as a continent? Our continent, painfully, seemed to be the worst of the worst in terms of socioeconomic development and the profligacy of governments. We are at a crossroads and desperate straits in the history of this continent and this should not be the time for the key economic players to be competing and comparing ‘economic megaphones’. It is certainly not how big the economic megaphone is, rather, it is the results you derive from what’s said into it.

In conclusion, the classic case of Trump threatening some days ago, to slap 25 percent tariffs on any country that patronises Venezuelan Oil – the country’s mainstay, because of his accusation that Venezuela is unleashing terror on American soil by sponsoring the deadly gang, Tren de Aragua (TDA) – their atrocious acts, which by the way, I completely frown at and totally condemn, and which Trump recently designated a terrorist organisation, is sending shock waves across Africa. The worry by a section of people that the continent may fall deeper and deeper into economic catastrophe should Trump face it is fast settling into full-blown fear.

As a matter of fact, the biggest economy in Africa, South Africa, has started to have a taste with the expulsion of her envoy from the US amid Trump’s remarks about the treatment of white farmers by the South African government. Whilst we must not compromise on our deeply rich history and celebrate our unbreakable fraternity, our leaders must not just be fascinated with the spotlight and power. They must know that their policies, actions and inactions, which appear to be chips off the block, have made life very hard for so many people – many folks are working their fingers to the bone and feeling dejected just as a ‘storm slaps reeds about’, hoping they could get a break from these grim ways.

While Trump’s ardent supporters see him as a strongman with a strong character, much of the world sees him as unpredictable. With the seeming unpredictability of the leader of the free world – choosing America and Americans over other countries and nationalities respectively seems to be one area anybody can successfully predict Trump, everyday inching closer to the possibility of an economic meltdown. I sincerely hope our leaders will take the valuable lessons from the Trump 2.0 economic agenda, tighten up and be laser-focused, and provide extraordinary leadership needed to leverage what we have to build a vibrant and innovative economy, which is one of the ways to exert global influence and develop into a superpower continent. It all comes down to leadership!

Ande, a financial and political economy analyst, writes from Lagos and can be reached via eyitayoande@gmail.com