Why a Trump Presidency might be a welcomed changed in Rwanda
It might appear to be contradictory, but Rwanda could welcome a Donald Trump Presidency. While President Paul Kagame congratulated Trump over Twitter after he won election, others in his government have suggested their disapproval with some of his executive orders. One in particular is his order to halt migration from seven nations. What could appeal to Rwandans is one of the reasons for why he is disliked by many other nations: his America first approach.
At Trump’s first speech as President at the inauguration was the slogan: ‘America First.’ While this rhetoric should not surprise anyone after running on the campaign slogan of ‘Make America Great Again’, it nevertheless surprised and made a lot of many people what will be his foreign policy? Unlike other Presidents, Trump is a bit of a wildcard as he never held any government position. Trump’s foreign policy in the context of Africa is also unknown. During the campaign he only made one relevant comment of American foreign policy in Sub-Saharan Africa and it was a direct threat …show more content…
A true shift of American foreign policy in Africa will not be on the top of Trump’s priority and could be so far down on his list of policies that it could be forgotten all together. This means the continuation of policies crafted by previous Presidential administrations. However, we can speculate that Trump will carry forth his America First approach to how he conducts relations with Africa. A result is the U.S. government turning away from general foreign aid with intentions to help African social development and instead alter it to help promote U.S. interests in Africa. It can be argued that this is already done, but the shift could be more outright and not have the rhetoric that many in Africa
It might appear to be contradictory, but Rwanda could welcome a Donald Trump Presidency. While President Paul Kagame congratulated Trump over Twitter after he won election, others in his government have suggested their disapproval with some of his executive orders. One in particular is his order to halt migration from seven nations. What could appeal to Rwandans is one of the reasons for why he is disliked by many other nations: his America first approach.
At Trump’s first speech as President at the inauguration was the slogan: ‘America First.’ While this rhetoric should not surprise anyone after running on the campaign slogan of ‘Make America Great Again’, it nevertheless surprised and made a lot of many people what will be his foreign policy? Unlike other Presidents, Trump is a bit of a wildcard as he never held any government position. Trump’s foreign policy in the context of Africa is also unknown. During the campaign he only made one relevant comment of American foreign policy in Sub-Saharan Africa and it was a direct threat …show more content…
A true shift of American foreign policy in Africa will not be on the top of Trump’s priority and could be so far down on his list of policies that it could be forgotten all together. This means the continuation of policies crafted by previous Presidential administrations. However, we can speculate that Trump will carry forth his America First approach to how he conducts relations with Africa. A result is the U.S. government turning away from general foreign aid with intentions to help African social development and instead alter it to help promote U.S. interests in Africa. It can be argued that this is already done, but the shift could be more outright and not have the rhetoric that many in Africa