“Exposing the White House Spectacle: Trump's African Leaders Meeting as Colonial Theatre” - 10 July 2025

From the Oval Office to the Plantation: Another Chapter in America's Colonial Playbook

Kia ora koutou. Welcome, everyone.

When Donald Trump assembled five West African leaders in the White House dining room yesterday, positioning himself as the benevolent dealmaker offering "incredible commercial opportunities," the spectacle revealed everything wrong with how the Global North continues to exploit Indigenous and African peoples. This wasn't diplomacy—it was colonial theatre, complete with the familiar script of white supremacist paternalism that Māori and Indigenous peoples worldwide recognize all too well.

Background Understanding the Colonial Framework

The Trump administration's approach to Africa represents a calculated shift from what officials dismissively call a "charity-based foreign aid model" to naked transactional exploitation. But this isn't progress—it's the same colonial extraction that has impoverished African nations for centuries, now wrapped in the language of "mutual benefit" and "commercial partnerships."

Secretary of State Marco Rubio's demolition of USAID wasn't about efficiency—it was about removing any pretense that America cares about African lives beyond their utility to US capital. The agency that once provided life-saving HIV medication and food security has been gutted, with studies projecting over 14 million deaths by 2030 as a direct result.

The Performance of Benevolent Racism

Trump's carefully choreographed lunch with leaders from Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mauritania, and Senegal exposed the administration's strategy of rewarding compliant African nations while punishing those that resist. The guest list itself tells the story—these aren't Africa's largest economies or most influential nations. They're countries desperate enough to accept whatever scraps Trump offers, having been deliberately weakened by decades of structural adjustment and now facing crushing "reciprocal" tariffs designed to force submission.

https://www.mining.com/web/trump-to-host-african-leaders-offering-major-mining-ventures/

Meanwhile, South Africa—which dared to challenge Israel's genocide in Gaza and maintain its BRICS membership—faces a punitive 30% tariff and Trump's bizarre video presentations claiming "white genocide". This pattern reveals how white supremacy operates globally—rewarding subservience while brutally punishing resistance.

The Language of Colonial Extraction

Notice how Trump frames these "partnerships"—African nations offering "incredible commercial opportunities" for American benefit. This language strips away African agency, reducing sovereign nations to resource extraction sites for American capital. When Trump promises these leaders access to "critical minerals" deals, he's essentially offering them the chance to sell their birthright for temporary relief from his economic warfare.

The administration's obsession with countering China's influence reveals another layer of colonial thinking—Africa exists primarily as a battleground for great power competition, not as home to over a billion people with their own aspirations and rights. This mirrors how Māori have long been treated as obstacles to development rather than rightful tangata whenua with inherent sovereignty.

Neoliberal Violence in Action

Trump's "trade not aid" rhetoric represents the purest expression of neoliberal ideology—the belief that market-based solutions can solve problems created by market-based exploitation. By dismantling humanitarian assistance while simultaneously imposing crushing tariffs, the administration creates artificial scarcity that forces African nations into exploitative deals.

This is textbook shock doctrine economics—create a crisis, then offer "solutions" that further enrich the already powerful while immiserating the vulnerable. African nations now face losing access to the US market under AGOA unless they accept whatever terms Trump dictates, including potentially serving as dumping grounds for American deportees.

The Spectacle of White Supremacist Theatre

Trump's Oval Office performance with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa revealed the psychological dynamics at play. Dimming the lights to screen propaganda videos about alleged white farmer persecution wasn't diplomacy—it was racial humiliation theatre designed to remind a Black African leader of his place in the global racial hierarchy.

The fact that Trump granted refugee status to white South Africans while simultaneously blocking visas for African women's basketball teams exposes the administration's racial priorities. White comfort and supremacy matter; Black African lives don't.

The Māori-Lens on Global White Supremacy

As tangata whenua, we understand how this system operates because we've lived under its boot for nearly two centuries. The same colonial mindset that claimed our lands and suppressed our language now operates globally, treating Indigenous peoples and formerly colonized nations as obstacles to "development" and "progress."

Our experience with the Crown's treaty breaches and cultural suppression provides crucial insights into how white supremacist systems maintain power through a combination of legal manipulation, economic coercion, and cultural violence. When we see Trump demanding that African nations accept American terms or face economic punishment, we recognize the same tactics used against Māori communities who dare assert their tino rangatiratanga.

Exposing the False Binary

Trump's administration promotes a false choice between "charity" and "commerce"—as if these are the only options for US-Africa relations. This binary obscures the real alternative: genuine partnership based on respect for African sovereignty and self-determination. Post-independence African leaders once challenged neocolonial exploitation and imagined alternatives to Global North domination, but these efforts were systematically undermined through coups, assassinations, and economic warfare.

The current system forces African nations into what one scholar calls "the race to the bottom"—competing to offer the most attractive terms to foreign investors while their own people suffer from imposed austerity. This mirrors how Indigenous communities are pitted against each other for Crown resources while the underlying system of dispossession remains unchanged.

The Infrastructure of Economic Violence

Trump's "reciprocal" tariffs represent economic terrorism disguised as fair trade. The calculation method—trade deficit divided by exports—has nothing to do with actual tariff reciprocity and everything to do with punishing nations for their economic success in serving American consumers.

Lesotho faces a crushing 50% tariff simply because its textile industry successfully serves American markets through AGOA. This punishes African nations for doing exactly what neoliberal theory claims they should do—specialize in their comparative advantages and integrate into global value chains.

The Humanitarian Catastrophe

The dismantling of USAID represents one of the largest humanitarian catastrophes in recent history. Sub-Saharan Africa, which received $12 billion in American assistance, now faces a funding cliff that will push 5.7 million more people into extreme poverty by 2030.

The five biggest losers in nominal terms are Ethiopia ($386.9m cut), Democratic Republic of Congo ($386.7m), Uganda ($306.8m), South Africa ($260.6m), and Kenya ($224.7m). The message is clear: African lives matter only insofar as they serve American economic interests.

China's Counter-Narrative

While Trump punishes African nations with tariffs, China announces zero-tariff policies for its African partners. This isn't necessarily benevolent—China has its own imperial ambitions—but it exposes the fundamental bankruptcy of American policy. When your main "selling point" is threatening people with economic violence unless they submit, you've already lost the moral argument.

The Personal and Political

Trump's reliance on Massad Boulos, his Lebanese-American son-in-law, as Africa advisor reveals how American Africa policy operates through personal networks rather than institutional expertise. Like Elon Musk's influence on South Africa policy, this personalization of foreign policy reduces complex geopolitical relationships to the whims of wealthy individuals with personal connections to power.

Implications The Global Assault on Indigenous Rights

This African summit reveals how white supremacist logic operates globally, treating all non-European peoples as resources to be extracted rather than humans with inherent rights. The same mindset that justifies Trump's tariff terrorism against African nations drives attacks on Māori rights here in Aotearoa.

When international Indigenous leaders condemn our government's handling of Māori rights, they recognize the global pattern of colonial states rolling back Indigenous gains during periods of economic crisis. The same forces demanding African submission to American capital want to reduce Māori to just another ethnic minority rather than tangata whenua with inherent sovereignty.

The dismantling of USAID parallels attacks on Indigenous social services worldwide—the systematic withdrawal of support from the most vulnerable while transferring wealth to the already powerful. This isn't accident or incompetence; it's the logical outcome of systems designed to maintain racial hierarchy through economic violence.

Community Impact on Tangata Whenua

For Māori communities, these global dynamics matter because they shape the local context of our struggles. When American capital demands African submission through economic terrorism, it strengthens the global system of white supremacy that also oppresses Indigenous peoples in Aotearoa. We cannot achieve tino rangatiratanga while ignoring how the same forces attacking our rights operate internationally.

Our participation in global Indigenous rights networks provides crucial solidarity with African liberation movements and other struggles against colonial domination. When we assert that Te Tiriti o Waitangi offers a model for Indigenous rights globally, we're challenging the same system that reduces African nations to resource extraction sites.

The Coalition Government's attacks on Māori rights occur within this global context of resurgent white supremacy. Understanding how Trump weaponizes economics against African sovereignty helps us recognize similar tactics being used against tangata whenua—the gradual withdrawal of Crown support for Māori development while imposing ever-greater compliance costs.

Conclusion Learning from Mananui Te Heuheu's Wisdom

When Mananui Te Heuheu refused to sign Te Tiriti, rejecting any notion that a white woman from England could wield mana over his whenua, he understood something crucial about power relationships that remains relevant today. The same colonial mindset that claimed our lands now operates globally, demanding submission from African nations through economic violence while offering only crumbs in return.

Trump's African summit represents the latest chapter in a centuries-old story of white supremacist extraction. The promise of "commercial opportunities" masks the reality of continued exploitation, just as early colonial "partnerships" masked land theft and cultural destruction. Until we name these systems for what they are—organized racial violence designed to maintain white supremacy—we cannot effectively resist them.

The choice facing African leaders mirrors the choice our tīpuna faced: submit to colonial authority and accept whatever scraps are offered, or assert inherent sovereignty and face the consequences. History shows us that submission only leads to greater exploitation, while resistance—though costly—preserves the possibility of genuine liberation.

As tangata whenua, we must support African struggles for true sovereignty while continuing our own fight for tino rangatiratanga. The same system oppressing both our peoples cannot be reformed through better "partnerships"—it must be dismantled and replaced with relationships based on genuine equality and mutual respect.

He whakatōhea nō ngā tipuna, he whakatōhea nō ngā mokopuna. What was good for our ancestors will be good for our descendants.

For those readers who find value in this kaupapa and wish to support ongoing efforts to expose misinformation and white supremacy, please consider offering a koha to HTDM: 03-1546-0415173-000. I understand these are challenging economic times for many whānau, so please only contribute if you have the capacity and desire to do so.

Kia kaha, kia maia, kia manawanui.

Ivor Jones
The Māori Green Lantern