The Scoop
The White House’s attempt to appoint a senior Africa director has fallen apart for the third time, according to four people familiar with the matter.
Air Force Col. Jean-Philippe Peltier, a career intelligence officer who was born in Chad and raised across Francophone Africa, had been lined up for the top Africa role. But he will no longer be joining the White House, after failing to pass the vetting process of the White House’s Presidential Personnel Office, according to two people familiar with the discussions.
The White House’s previous candidates were Joe Foltz, a staff director for the Republican side of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, and John Tomaszewski, a senior aide of Idaho Sen. Jim Risch, chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Both have extensive US-Africa policy knowledge but were rejected by some in the right wing of the Republican Party for their previous alliances with moderate issues such as environmental causes.
So far the White House’s Africa team includes two Africa directors who have military experience — Brendan McNamara and Dan Dunham. The latest news on the appointment process comes as reports suggest that US President Donald Trump is considering folding United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) into its European counterpart.
A White House spokesperson was not immediately available for comment.
In this article:
Know More
As in his previous term, President Donald Trump has not had Africa anywhere near the top of his agenda. But since his return to office, African issues have been making unexpected appearances in the headlines.
The obvious case is the ugly fallout between the White House and South Africa. Trump has embraced false claims — promoted by his South African-born billionaire supporter, Elon Musk — that white South African farmers are being killed by Black locals. South Africa has pushed back vehemently on those claims, but earlier this month, he issued an executive order cutting all US aid to the country.
That order was swiftly followed by Washington’s expulsion of the South African ambassador to the US, Semafor reported, for comments suggesting that Trump is leading a “supremacist” movement. Away from South Africa, Trump managed to insult Lesotho during his State of the Union speech to Congress a few weeks ago, describing it as a country “nobody has heard of.” But he has also appointed his daughter’s father-in-law to negotiate the DR Congo/Rwanda/M23 conflict in eastern Congo, in the hope of striking a critical minerals deal for the US.
Yinka’s view
Africa may not be at the top of Trump’s agenda, but it’s clear that any serious player in the geopolitics of the 21st century has to have an Africa plan. That’s why this White House appointment is more vital than the uncertainty around it might suggest to a casual observer. One of the biggest foreign policy issues of concern on the minds of Trump backers in Washington is the great power rivalry with China and access to critical minerals for everything from electric vehicle batteries to powerful AI chips. Some of the solutions to those two challenges pass through Africa, and the White House will require a thoughtful, experienced Africa leader to plan its partner strategy in a region where many governments would welcome a supportive and open-minded United States.
And this is not about humanitarian aid. Several African governments and former leaders have been clear that they understand why Trump has slashed US aid that had, until now, supported many of their countries. Instead, what we’ve been hearing is calls for a “transactional” Trump presidency to really consider Africa for more economic dealmaking. In order for that to happen with any frequency and scale, there will need to be a focused Africa hand who has Trump’s ear.
Room for Disagreement
Some argue that Trump doesn’t necessarily need a dedicated Africa director in the White House. Instead, he could lean into the ‘special envoy’ option, particularly as he seeks specific deals with certain countries. He did this in his first term when, for example, he appointed Ambassador J. Peter Pham as his special envoy to the Great Lakes region in eastern Africa. This time around, he has appointed Lebanon-born businessman Massad Boulos as his special envoy to DR Congo, with an eye on working on critical minerals.
Notable
- What Musk and Trump describe is not the South Africa I know and love,” writes Brett Davidson in Al Jazeera. “They are wrong to brand post-apartheid South Africa as riddled with racial discrimination.”
- South Africa’s president says the persecution of whites is a “false narrative,” as Musk repeats his claims of genocide.