The Trump administration boasts that it has upended(彻底颠覆) the United States’ relationship with Africa. In its view, the U.S. government has historically promoted a liberal agenda(自由议程) on the continent through aid, democracy promotion, and human rights advocacy; President Donald Trump has pivoted to(转向) a proudly transactional approach(交易式方法) that favors U.S. security and economic interests. As Nick Checker(①背景：Nick Checker 是特朗...), the senior State Department official responsible for African affairs, declared in a speech on March 19, “The United States is resetting its relationship with Africa based on mutually beneficial partnerships(互利伙伴关系) rather than aid, dependency, and spreading divisive ideology(分裂性意识形态). . . . It’s a radical but necessary corrective(激进但必要的修正) to the reckless pursuit(鲁莽追求) of liberal hegemony(霸权) over the last 30 years.”
特朗普政府宣称自己彻底颠覆了美国与非洲的关系。在其看来，美国政府历史上通过援助、民主推广和人权倡导在非洲推行自由主义议程；总统特朗普则转向了一种赤裸裸的交易式做法，优先考虑美国的安全和经济利益。正如负责非洲事务的国务院高级官员尼克·切克在3月19日的讲话中所宣称的那样：“美国正在重置与非洲的关系，其基础是互利伙伴关系，而非援助、依赖和传播分裂性意识形态……这是对过去30年鲁莽追求自由主义霸权的激进但必要的修正。”
Critics and supporters alike have bought the Trump administration’s claim. “Trump’s ‘America First’ approach is reshaping(重塑) how the United States engages with Africa,” a Tony Blair Institute(①背景：由英国前首相托尼·布莱尔（Ton...) report declared in February 2025. “Under the new administration, U.S.-Africa relations will be explicitly pursued within the context of U.S. interests.” In December, The Guardian(①背景：成立于1821年的英国日报，全球...) concluded that Washington’s Africa strategy indeed constituted a “consequential pivot(重大转向)” in which “human rights and democracy promotion have been de-emphasized(被淡化).”
批评者和支持者都接受了特朗普政府的说辞。托尼·布莱尔研究院在2025年2月的一份报告中宣称：“特朗普的‘美国优先’方针正在重塑美国与非洲接触的方式。在新政府领导下，美非关系将明确地在美国利益的框架内发展。”12月，《卫报》总结说华盛顿的非洲战略确实构成了一个“重大转向”，其中“人权和民主推广已被淡化”。
But the truth is that the difference between Trump’s approach and that of previous U.S. administrations is a matter of degree, not kind(程度而非本质的区别). Trump’s wholesale demolition(全面拆除/撤销) of the U.S. Agency for International Development, restrictions on African visa seekers, punitive tariffs(惩罚性关税), courting of autocrats(讨好威权统治者), and freewheeling, quid-pro-quo dealmaking(随心所欲、交换式的交易) are more nakedly(赤裸裸地) transactional than the policies his predecessors pursued. But alongside public health interventions and democracy promotion, Washington has long pursued arrangements with African authoritarians and sought more informal kinds of deals on the continent than it pursued elsewhere. For many decades, U.S. Africa policy has been disjointed(支离破碎的，不连贯的). And over the past 20 years, it has become even more so, as recent African migrants to the United States have become more influential in policymaking and have pushed for a country-by-country, rather than a continent-wide, approach(逐个国家的而非全大陆的方式).
但事实是，特朗普的做法与以往美国政府的差异是程度上的，而非本质上的。特朗普全面拆解美国国际开发署、限制非洲签证申请者、征收惩罚性关税、讨好威权统治者，以及随心所欲的一手交钱一手交货式交易，都比他的前任们更赤裸裸。但除了公共卫生干预和民主促进之外，华盛顿长期以来一直与非洲威权统治者达成安排，并在非洲寻求比起其他地方更加非正式的交易。几十年来，美国的非洲政策一直是支离破碎的。而在过去20年里，随着近年移民美国的非洲人在政策制定中变得更有影响力，并推动采取按国别而非全大陆的方式，这种碎片化有增无减。
BLACK POWER PARADOX
黑人权力的悖论
BUSINESS AS USUAL
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