State Emissary, November 2017. Issue 1 2017 Edition | Page 19

SM | POLITICS
Trump the president will have to reconcile his
comments about both refugees (30 percent of refugees
admitted into the U.S. in 2015 were African) and
Muslims (some 250 million in sub-Saharan Africa
alone) with the reality that the U.S. must, and should,
continue engaging with Africa.
His foreign policy comments suggest the U.S. may
rethink its foreign aid and foreign deployments, many
of which will affect U.S. relations with Africa.
Trump's insistence that he will re-negotiate trade
deals could also impact long standing legislation like
the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), a
preferential trade agreement between select African
countries and the U.S., which was renewed by
Congress in 2015.
Africa has been a rare area of bipartisan agreement for
decades: President George W. Bush, for example, is
widely loved across the continent for implementing
the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief
(PEPFAR). AGOA was created by President Bill
Clinton, renewed under Bush, and renewed again
under Obama. As such, Trump enters office with a
unique opportunity in U.S.-Africa policy to offer
policies acceptable across the political spectrum,
while also advancing U.S. security and economic
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