Ambassador over there: Trump recalled dozens of Biden-appointed heads of diplomatic missions

The Trump administration is recalling the ambassadors appointed under Biden from 29 countries. According to the White House, they will be replaced by employees who "share the priorities of the current president's America First foreign policy." Almost half of the recalled diplomats are from African countries, with which the American leader is trying to radically change relations. Details can be found in the Izvestia article.

Welcome to the exit

The heads of diplomatic missions in 29 countries were informed that they should leave their country of residence in the near future — their term of office expires in January 2026. The State Department declined to provide any additional information.

It is only known that diplomats may return later, but only to perform other tasks. The State Department stressed that such changes are "a common process in any administration." At the same time, neither Barack Obama nor Joseph Biden radically changed the composition of the diplomatic corps.

John Dinkelman, president of the American Foreign Service Association, explained to Politico that the ambassadors should leave their posts by January 15. According to the diplomat, this could harm the reputation of the United States in the international arena.

Ambassadors from 13 countries were sent to Africa: Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Gabon, Côte d'Ivoire, Madagascar, Mauritius, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Somalia and Uganda. Ambassadors to Fiji, Laos, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines and the Marshall Islands, Vietnam, Armenia, Macedonia, Slovakia, Montenegro, Algeria, Egypt, Nepal and Sri Lanka, Guatemala and Suriname will also change.

At the same time, the United States still does not have heads of diplomatic missions in countries that are quite important to them: Germany, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, South Korea, Australia and Ukraine.

At the same time, the American media does not exclude that in some African countries the post of ambassador may be eliminated altogether. The New York Times reported that the State Department may be reorganized, during which the Bureau of African Affairs may be dissolved. However, Secretary of State Marco Rubio later denied this information.

The American leader himself said in the summer that trade interests would become a priority in relations with African states, rather than promoting democracy and humanitarian issues.

A carrot without a carrot

After returning to the White House, Trump began to change the American foreign policy course towards Africa: from unilateral aid to beneficial economic cooperation for the United States.

The efforts of previous administrations were aimed at developing democratic institutions in African countries, promoting their economic growth and humanitarian support.

Subsequently, Washington admitted that the result did not meet expectations, since "coups took place in some states of the continent and constitutions were changed, which extended the term of office of the current leaders."

In his first 100 days in office, Trump canceled aid programs for African countries and imposed increased tariffs on almost all of them.

For example, Lesotho, which, according to Trump, imposes 99 percent tariffs on American goods, and which, according to the American leader, "no one has heard of," received 50 percent duties, Madagascar — 47%, Mauritius — 40%, South Africa — 30%, Botswana — 37%, Libya — 31%, Algeria — 30%.

In early April, the president relented and suspended the increased tariffs, setting them at 10%.

Sub-Saharan Africa was one of the largest recipients of aid from the Agency for International Development (USAID). Of the agency's average annual budget of $40 billion, about $8 billion was allocated for programs for African countries. Of these, almost half of the funds were spent on humanitarian aid, 38% on health care, and 8% on economic development.

Two years ago, Mozambique, Malawi, Liberia, Somalia and the Central African Republic received the maximum amounts of aid from the United States.

The economic cooperation between the United States and African countries is based on the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), adopted in 2000. According to the agreement, 32 states received duty-free access to the American market for more than 1.8 thousand categories of goods.

Wrong Africa

Against this background, the policy of aggravating relations between the United States and South Africa stands out. Trump accuses the country's authorities of violating the rights of Afrikaners (the white population of the country), he is also not satisfied with the intensification of its dialogue with Tehran and the republic's attitude towards Israel — in 2023, Pretoria filed a lawsuit against Israel in the International Court of Justice for actions in the Gaza Strip.

In March, the American authorities declared South African Ambassador to the United States Ibrahim Rasoul persona non grata, calling him "a racist who hates America and its president."

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa flew to Washington in May to establish relations with Donald Trump. However, after this meeting, US cooperation with the Republic of South Africa only worsened: Trump refused to go to the November G20 summit in Johannesburg.

After that, the American leader said that "South Africa has demonstrated to the whole world that it is not a country worthy of membership anywhere," and therefore it will not receive an invitation to the G20 summit to be held in Miami next year, and it may not wait for payments and subsidies from Washington.

Politico, citing sources close to Trump, reported that if the authorities of African countries seek to have strong relations with the United States, they need to pay for it. For example, to arrange for the reception of persons being deported from the United States, or to provide access to minerals.

This option, in particular, was proposed by the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In exchange for American military support for the country, it offered Washington access to deposits of cobalt, lithium, copper and tantalum.

What do the experts think

Victoria Zhuravleva, Deputy Director of the IMEMO RAS named after E.M. Primakov, head of the Center for North American Studies, noted in an interview with Izvestia that every new president changes ambassadors in the United States in accordance with his agenda.

— This is a normal practice, heads of diplomatic missions change in key countries and regions for the new administration. Africa has indeed been a priority for the United States for several years. The growth of interest can be traced back to the administration of Barack Obama. But at the same time, of course, each administration promotes its own priorities: the Democrats had values, Trump had resources," the American scientist explained.

Sergey Karamaev, a researcher at the Center for Development and Modernization Problems of the IMEMO RAS, noted in an interview with Izvestia that the United States does not have a separate African strategy.

— There is no formalized document called the "African strategy" or "strategy for the development of relations", and there is no concept or plan for working with key African states. There are experts on the continent in the country, but their voice in decision—making is not heard," the Africanist explained.

According to the political scientist, Trump has a businessman's approach to politics.

— The American leader wants to dominate, tries to work in line with bargaining and conditions, This is the first thing that African countries do not really like. The second is that Trump's policy and the US policy towards African countries are not long—term. Washington does not think in the paradigm of projects for 15, 20, 30 or more years," the expert believes.

The expert stressed that the United States is interested in minerals in Africa and competition with China, although it is difficult to call them competitors.

— Impulsiveness in international relations does not bring benefits. Besides, it is not known who will replace Trump. By the time Americans have a new president, the world will have changed once again and even more. And it's not a fact that Africa will be in the top ten priority areas for the United States," the analyst concluded.