President Donald Trump is slashing and burning the bulk of the Biden administration’s energy and climate legacy, but there’s one policy he appears to be embracing: an African cross-continental rail project that would access mineral-rich countries and counter China.
Trump is following in former President Joe Biden’s footsteps and backing the Lobito Corridor while pushing a larger push for business across the African continent.
“We fully support the Lobito Corridor,” Massad Boulos, Trump’s senior adviser for Africa and father-in-law of Tiffany Trump, said during a press event in mid-April. “This is a huge project which is extremely important and vital for … the economies of not only Congo or the DRC, but also Zambia and definitely Angola.”
Trump is pushing an “America First” focus on investment in Africa, specifically minerals, while attempting to broker peace in feuding regions. On Friday, Trump announced that he “arranged” a treaty to end a decadeslong conflict between the mineral-rich Democratic Republic of Congo, or DRC, and Rwanda, which will be signed this Friday in Washington.
