Trump administration - The African Mirror

Jul

2021

Biden revives Trump’s Africa business initiative; eyes future digital project

DOYINSOLA OLADIPO and ANDREA SHALAL THE Biden administration has announced a new push to expand business ties between U.S. companies and Africa, with a focus on building needed digital, health and physical infrastructure on the continent, a senior U.S. official said. U.S. industry executives welcome the interest, but say dollar flows will lag until the Biden administration wraps up its lengthy review of Trump administration trade measures and sets a clear policy on investments in liquefied natural gas. Dana Banks, senior director for Africa at the White House National Security Council, will kick off a U.S.-Africa business summit, with a…

Apr

2021

By The African Mirror

Foreign aid can help stem the decline of democracy, if used in the right way

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

RACHEL M GISSELQUIST and MIGUEL NIÑO-ZARAZÚA DEMOCRACY is having a hard time. In India, once the world’s largest democracy, the pandemic has hastened the country’s slide toward authoritarianism. In the US, the Trump administration’s attacks on democratic norms reached new lows when the former president, backed by the Republican party, refused to accept his loss in the November 2020 elections. In fact studies show democratic norms are in decline worldwide. Freedom House recently argued that democracy has been declining since 2005, while the latest report from the Varieties of Democracy Institute reveals that 68% the world’s population now live in…

Feb

2021

By The African Mirror

U.S. Supreme Court scraps arguments in Trump-era immigration and wall cases

WORLD

LAWRENCE HURLEY THE U.S. Supreme Court yesterday cancelled upcoming scheduled arguments in appeals filed by Republican former President Donald Trump's administration defending his funding of the U.S.-Mexico border wall and his so-called "remain in Mexico" asylum policy. Democratic President Joe Biden's administration, which is in the process of changing course on both issues, on Monday had asked the justices to postpone further legal filings in the two cases and to remove them from their oral argument calendar. Biden's administration already has announced plans to discontinue wall construction and suspend the asylum program, potentially making the cases moot. The court was…

Jan

2021

By The African Mirror

Trump opens Florida office to push his former administration’s agenda

WORLD

DONALD Trump has opened an office in Florida that will handle his duties as a former U.S. president and seek to further his administration's agenda. "The Office will be responsible for managing President Trump's correspondence, public statements, appearances, and official activities to advance the interests of the United States and to carry on the agenda of the Trump Administration through advocacy, organizing, and public activism," a statement said. The announcement came on the same day the House of Representatives delivered to the Senate an impeachment article charging Trump with inciting insurrection in a speech to supporters before the deadly attack…

Jan

2021

By The African Mirror

Trump had no vaccine distribution plan

WORLD

THERE was no distribution plan for the coronavirus vaccine set up by the Trump administration as the virus raged in its last months in office, new President Joe Biden's chief of staff, Ron Klain, said yesterday. "The process to distribute the vaccine, particularly outside of nursing homes and hospitals out into the community as a whole, did not really exist when we came into the White House," Klain said on NBC's "Meet the Press." Biden, a Democrat who took over from Republican President Donald Trump on Wednesday, has promised a fierce fight against the pandemic that killed 400,000 people in…

Jan

2021

By The African Mirror

Cabinet approves deal with Morocco

NEWS

MAAYAN LUBELL ISRAEL'S cabinet approved a deal to upgrade ties with Morocco, the fourth Arab country to forge relations with Israel in a parting foreign policy push by the former Trump administration, Israel's N12 news reported. The agreement will now go to Israel's parliament for ratification. Last month, Morocco followed the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan in moving towards normal relations with Israel in deals brokered in 2020 by the administration of former U.S. President Donald Trump. Palestinians have censured the accords, seeing a betrayal of a long-standing demand that Israel first meet their demand for statehood. As the…

Jan

2021

By The African Mirror

In parting shot, Trump accuses China of ‘genocide’

WORLD

HUMEYRA PAMUK THE Trump administration has determined that China has committed "genocide and crimes against humanity" by repressing Uighur Muslims in its Xinjiang region, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has revealed, delivering an embarrassing blow to Beijing a day before U.S. president-elect Joe Biden is set to take office. Pompeo said he made the move - which is certain to strain further already frayed ties between the world's top economies - "after careful examination of the available facts," accusing the Chinese Communist Party of crimes against humanity against the Uighurs and other Muslim minorities since at least March 2017. "I…

Dec

2020

By The African Mirror

Trump administration moves forward with $1 billion Moroccan arms deal

NEWS

PATRICIA ZENGERLE and MIKE STONE PRESIDENT Donald Trump's administration moved forward with $1 billion in sales of drones and precision-guided weapons to Morocco on Friday, sending a notice to Congress about the potential deals, according to sources familiar with the notification. The deal includes four MQ-9B SeaGuardian drones made by privately-held General Atomics, and Hellfire, Paveway and JDAM precision-guided munitions made by Lockheed Martin, Raytheon and Boeing, the sources said. Reuters was first to report on Thursday that Washington was negotiating the sale and would notify Congress shortly. News of the deal came as the White House announced an agreement…

Dec

2020

By The African Mirror

Bipartisan U.S. lawmakers seek fast approval of $908 bln COVID-19 relief

WORLD

RICHARD COWAN and DOINA CHIACU A bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers have unveiled a $908 billion COVID-19 relief bill aimed at breaking a monthslong deadlock between Democrats and Republicans over new emergency assistance for small businesses, unemployed people, airlines and other industries during the pandemic. The measure has not yet been written into legislation. Nor has it been embraced yet by the Republican Trump administration, Democratic President-elect Joe Biden or leaders in the Senate or House of Representatives, all of whom would be needed for passage. But it comes with the backing of a group of conservatives and moderates who…

Nov

2020

By The African Mirror

U.S. allies greet Biden as next president despite Trump refusal to concede

WORLD

THOMAS ESCRITT, MICHAEL HOLDEN and DAVID LJUNGGREN SOME of the United States' biggest and closest allies quickly congratulated Joe Biden on his presidential election victory on Saturday even though Donald Trump, with whom several have had rocky relations, had yet to concede. Germany, Canada and France, which have had strained ties with the Trump administration despite being its G7 and NATO partners, were among the first to recognise Biden's victory, soon after major U.S. television networks declared it. "I look forward to future cooperation with President Biden," German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in a statement on Twitter. "Our transatlantic friendship…