Donald Trump’s return as the 47th United States president, despite his many criminal indictments, was a historic moment for the world. He was first elected president from 2017 to 2021 and lost at the polls to Joseph Biden of the Democratic Party.
The election occurred on December 17, 2024, with Trump garnering 312 votes against Harris’ 226—well above the 270 threshold—making him the second president in U.S. history, after Grover Cleveland in 1892, to be elected to a non-consecutive second term.
On the first day of his inauguration, Trump signed several executive policies, signalling a new road map for America. However, these policies are likely to impact Africa negatively.
Birthright citizenship
In one of the executive orders signed by Trump, birthright citizenship is to be terminated. Trump, before his inauguration, described birthright citizenship as ridiculous and emphasised that he would end it. This policy would deny the granting of citizenship to the children of migrants who are either in the U.S. illegally or on temporary visas.
However, this was halted by U.S. District Judge John Coughenour, who called it “blatantly unconstitutional.” Trump’s order contradicts Section 1 of the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution, which states that “all persons born or naturalised in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”
This legal principle, enshrined in the Constitution, automatically grants citizenship to anyone born within the U.S. or its territories.
According to Pew Research, about 250,000 babies were born to unauthorised immigrant parents in the United States in 2016, representing a 36% decrease from a peak in 2007. By 2022, the latest year for which data is available, there were 1.2 million U.S. citizens born to unauthorised immigrant parents, Pew found.
However, as those children also have children, the cumulative effect of ending birthright citizenship would increase the number of unauthorised immigrants in the country to 4.7 million by 2050, according to the Migration Policy Institute.
Reacting to this policy plan during a press interview held last December, Trump said, “The only way you don’t break up the family is you keep them together, and you have to send them all back.”
If this policy goes through, immigrants from all over the world, including from Africa, will have the citizenship status of their children revoked.
Suspends refugees programme
On January 20, 2025, Donald Trump issued an executive order suspending the United States Refugee Programme with a clause stating: “The Secretary of State and the Secretary of Homeland Security may jointly determine to admit aliens to the United States as refugees on a case-by-case basis, in their discretion, but only so long as they determine that the entry of such aliens as refugees is in the national interest and does not pose a threat to the security or welfare of the United States.”
Resettlement is the selection and transfer of refugees from a country where they have sought protection to a third country that has permitted them to stay based on long-term or permanent residence status. For the U.S., this process is rigorous and takes approximately two years.
Trump’s order has already started taking effect, as 1,600 Afghans who assisted America’s war effort, as well as relatives of active-duty U.S. military personnel approved to come to the United States, have had their travel plans cancelled.
This decision will affect Africans fleeing their countries and seeking refuge in the United States. In the first eight months of FY 2023, 43 per cent of admitted refugees were from Africa, 28 per cent from the Middle East and South Asia, 13 per cent from East Asia, 11 per cent from Latin America and the Caribbean, and 4 per cent from Europe and Central Asia.
Trump has been a firm believer in keeping immigrants outside the country’s borders. By the time he left office in January 2021, he had set a record-low goal of 15,000 refugees admitted per year. Only 11,814 refugees came into the U.S. in Trump’s last year, compared with 84,994 at the end of the Obama administration.
Suspends foreign aids
Africa has benefited from foreign aid provided by the United States through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). In fiscal year 2021, USAID and the U.S. Department of State reported providing $8.5 billion in assistance to 47 countries and eight regional programmes in sub-Saharan Africa.
On December 3, 2024, former President Joseph Biden announced that the United States would provide more than $1 billion in additional humanitarian assistance to address food insecurity and other urgent needs of refugees, internally displaced persons (IDPs), and affected communities in 31 African countries—on top of the nearly $6.6 billion in humanitarian assistance already provided.
All these aids have been aimed at improving health and population programs, education and social services, infrastructure and economic growth, humanitarian assistance, and governance and democracy programmes.
Africa has had to rely on foreign aid to address crises in several regions. For example, in the 2024 fiscal year, Nigeria received $782.66 million in U.S. foreign assistance. However, this is likely to change going forward.
Trump’s executive order has halted all foreign assistance worldwide for 90 days. According to State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce, President Trump stated that the United States is no longer going to “blindly dole out money with no return for the American people.” She added, “Reviewing and realigning foreign assistance on behalf of hardworking taxpayers is not just the right thing to do; it is a moral imperative.”
Discussion about this post