Africa and the New World Order: U.S. Pulls Back and China Moves Forward

U.S. President Donald Trump met with five West African leaders in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on July 9, 2025. (Photo by Jim WATSON / AFP)

The collapse of the post-war international system now underway will have a disproportionate impact on African countries that rely heavily on multilateral bodies like the UN. Beyond a pull-back of aid and humanitarian assistance, African countries must also contend with an increasingly hostile United States.

Dozens of African countries have been targeted by the Trump administration for visa restrictions, trade sanctions, and regularly denigrated by the president himself. At the same time, U.S. diplomats across the continent were ordered by the State Department in January to remind African governments to express more gratitude to the U.S. for its “generosity.”

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