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African perspectives in Trump’s inaugural speech

IMAGE CREDIT: AP

By Bob Wekesa

On nearly all fronts, the expectation of a return to President Donald Trump’s first-term foreign policy is a
self-fulfilling prophecy. Before we even get to the flurry of executive orders that have reset the US
engagement with the world, Trump’s inauguration speech speaks volumes. It sets the tone and agenda,
frames the major foreign policy issues, and shapes the contours of discourse.


What are the African dimensions of Trump’s outward-bound doctrine, conviction and actions?


In the first few words of his speech, Trump was clear: “during every single day of the Trump
administration, I will very simply put America first.” This is the essence of agency. In reverse, it sounds
like African agency, the idea that African leaders and people should always put their countries and the
continent first.


Critical of “unlimited funding to the defence of foreign borders” he stated that the military expenditure
would go to protecting the US. The implications? First, the US budget for African militaries will be
reduced. Second, the US will not intervene should there be cross-border conflicts between African
states. Such will be the case with the DRC’s claim of Rwandan and Ugandan incursion into its eastern
regions.

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