Recent developments in the United States of America are proving that Donald Trump, the 45th and 47th President of the US, is making good on his campaign promise to project America’s influence and power, globally.
Trump won overwhelmingly in the November 5, 2024 presidential election that was held in the US and was on January 20, 2025 inaugurated into office as the leader of the most powerful nation on earth.
On his first day in office, he signed a slew of executive orders, now more than 50 and counting, that have ushered in sweeping changes covering an array of policy areas.
Thus, from immigration to birthright citizenship, the 78-year-old Trump’s executive orders, some of which are being challenged in court, have stirred controversy in the US, but Trump insists he is just getting started.
Only last week, Trump, in a major shift from US foreign policy towards the Middle East, told a shocked world that the Gaza strip and its people – Palestinians who have been ravaged by Israeli bombs following the October 7, 2023, attack on Israel by terrorist group, Hamas – should be taken over by the US and permanently resettled elsewhere, respectively.
Although the world was swift in criticising Trump for mooting an idea that amounted to “ethnic cleansing,” the White House clarified that Trump was committed to “temporarily” relocate Gazans.
Analysts, many of whom refer to Trump as the master of “The art of the deal,” based on the 1987 book the he co-authored with journalist, Tony Schwartz, are strongly opinionated that the real estate mogul-turned-president will also not be deterred as he pursues his much-touted “America First” policy doctrine.
Unsurprisingly, Trump has used that as an excuse to challenge the members of BRICS – a group of emerging economies determined to perforate America’s influence over the world’s economy.
BRICS was established in 2009; the group is made up of its founding members: Brazil, Russia, India, China and later on, South Africa, and during its summit in October 2024, in Kazan, Russia, it invited nine other countries, including Nigeria, into its fold as partner countries.
Nigeria has formally accepted the invitation and BRICS, on their own part, had launched a symbolic banknote during its Kazan summit, featuring the flags of member nations.
Although BRICS refers to Nigeria as “Najeriya” on the prototype of the currency, they hope it will whittle down the influence of the US Dollar by replacing it as a reserve currency.
Despite the fact that membership of BRICS would be beneficial to Nigeria, for instance, by providing access to finance offered by the group’s New Development Bank, Trump vowed that the plan to change the Dollar with the BRICS currency will have dire consequences.
The US President threatened a 100 percent tariff on BRICS member countries.
Trump also said, “There is no chance that BRICS will replace the U.S. Dollar in International Trade, or anywhere else, and any country that tries should say hello to Tariffs, and goodbye to America!”
Trump’s 90-day freeze on US foreign aid and the imminent overhaul of the United States Agency for International Development is also affecting Nigeria.
Some healthcare centres that are spread across the country’s vast rural areas have shut up shop because of the non-availability of these life-saving aids from the USAID and to add to the uncertainty, the US government says it will review whether or not the allocation of its foreign aid is in line with Trump’s foreign policy.
On the strength of Trump’s rhetoric, a former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bolaji Akinyemi, had warned Nigeria’s President, Bola Tinubu, to avoid confrontation with Trump in the interests of Nigeria.
“If I were President Tinubu, I would try to steer clear of antagonising him (Trump) because there is nothing a bully likes better than taking on people who are not strong enough to resist him.
“This is the advice I will give President Tinubu: try and avoid having a confrontation with him even if that means that he does things that annoy or does things that step on the interests of Nigeria. There are ways in which you could address his reaction without confrontation,” Akinyemi said.
Trump has said he would also cut all funding to South Africa over a new land expropriation law in the former apartheid enclave that allegedly targets white land owners
Trump said, “South Africa is confiscating land, and treating certain classes of people very badly.”
“In South Africa,” Trump added, “A massive Human Rights violation, at a minimum, is happening for all to see,” without providing evidence.
“The United States won’t stand for it, we will act.
“Also, I will be cutting off all future funding to South Africa until a full investigation of this situation has been completed!”
The President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, has refused to let Trump box him into a corner though.
“I don’t know what Donald Trump has to do with South African land,” Ramaphosa had fired back.
“South Africa does not belong to Donald Trump. He must leave us alone. Stay out of our issues,” he added.
Last month, Ramaphosa signed a new law that allows the government to seize people’s land without compensation in certain circumstances.
Land ownership, for South Africans, is a controversial issue because white farmers in the country are still in possession of most farmlands, 30 years after the end of the racist system of apartheid.
South Africans had called on the government to address land reforms and deal with the past injustice woven by racial segregation.
A South African academic and political strategist, Ongama Mtimka, said that Washington’s qualms with South Africa over the land row, and other matters, are connected to the foreign policy choices of the South African government.
Mtimka also said that South Africa does not have to cower to the US.
He said, “Donald Trump is obviously ill-informed about South Africa’s expropriation bill.
“This (law) is something that the US and UK, the places where democracy is supposedly a template, have.
“It is very clear that Trump is playing the card of coercive diplomacy which the US has played throughout history when it comes to governments that don’t do its bidding on the foreign policy front.
“Now, we do know that South Africa has had foreign policy choices that were not favoured by the US in recent years, starting with the Russia-Ukraine war, taking Israel to the International Court of Justice (because of its war on Gaza) as well as South Africa’s involvement in BRICS.”
Mtimka added, “All of these are seen by the Trump administration as intolerable alliances.
“It is very clear that Trump is playing the card of coercive diplomacy which the US has played throughout history when it comes to governments that don’t do its bidding on the foreign policy front”
“Now, throughout its democratic history, South Africa has always made it clear to the US that while they appreciate the trade integration and the social integration that South Africa enjoys with Washington, it also has a right to choose its allies globally.
“South Africa doesn’t have to cower to the interests of the US when it comes to who its allies are.”
A current affairs analyst, Muyiwa Bello, said, “We are in Trump 2.0 and Nigeria and South Africa, two of the biggest economies in Africa, should be ready for anything thrown at them by Trump and America.
“Personally, I hold the view that Nigeria mustn’t expect anything from Trump. We shouldn’t forget in a hurry that he allegedly called Africa a shithole.
“The man was elected by his people to ‘Make America Great Again’ and we mustn’t complain if he has stopped foreign aid or not.
“Must we even depend on foreign aid? What about all the appropriations made for health? How were they spent?
“I read that the Federal Government belatedly established a committee that will look into how the effects of the suspension of American aid will be mitigated.
“But must we wait for a suspension of foreign aid before we can do the right thing in this country or before we can fend for our own people?
“America is a reasonably powerful country and even though I know that I ought to sound patriotic, that country is more serious than ours and it will be hard for our government to call Trump’s bluff,” he concluded.