When US President Donald J. Trump hosted five African Heads of State at the White House earlier this month — including Liberia’s Joseph Nyuma Boakai — it was touted as a high-level dialogue. A carefully staged “test run” for the larger U.S.-Africa summit Trump is expected to announce soon. But, as we have previously stated, the invitation to the meeting felt more like a summons of inferiors to meet their tyrannical king.
We do not make this claim lightly. Trump’s first term laid bare his mean understanding of Africa. He notoriously dismissed our nations as “shithole countries.” More recently, in a moment meant to be complimentary, he marveled at President Boakai’s “beautiful English,” as though fluency were an exception rather than the norm among African leaders. And, when South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa visited the White House, Trump ambushed him on live television with sensationalized printouts of a supposed graveyard, touting these images as evidence of “genocide against white South Africans.” It did not matter to Trump that Ramaphosa’s delegation included some of South Africa’s wealthiest white business leaders, all of whom refuted his claims.
These episodes reveal a dangerous dynamic: a U.S. president whose understanding of Africa is filtered through right wing news outlets and partisan spin. But compound this ignorant and boorish behavior with the steep tariffs Trump has already imposed on African countries and his threats to impose tariffs on remittances to Africa, and our African leaders cannot possibly expect good faith and constructive dialogue from the upcoming summit.
They would be wise, therefore, to turn the tables quickly and take charge of the dynamic. This is the moment to recalibrate the US-Africa relationship. Rather than boarding another flight to Washington or New York, they must insist that the next engagement between the US President and African leaders be held on African soil, at our African Union Headquarters in Addis Ababa.
We have made this call to dignity before. This is not about pomp or protocol. It is about power, perception, and perspective.
Trump needs to see Africa for himself. He needs to walk the ground, hear directly from our people, and confront realities that challenge the false and tired Western narratives. A summit on African soil would do exactly that — at least for a leader willing to listen, understand, and collaborate. Trump has shown the world he is none such.
Still, the stakes are high and we have no bad bush in which to throw America. It will remain Liberia’s most important partner, for the foreseeable future and maintain a significant, if dwindling, influence across the continent. The flip side of that coin is where our leverage lies. The Trump administration has laid out a six-point strategy for Africa, centered on trade, energy, security cooperation, critical minerals, and regional stability. These are not abstract priorities. They directly intersect with Africa’s own ambitions for industrialization, infrastructure, and self-reliance. They also signal America’s fight to maintain its competitiveness in the global economy, with China at its heels.
Our African leaders must set the agenda ahead of the upcoming summit and present their plans as the unified market we now are — The African Continental Free Trade Area. Each leader most certainly has a vision and plans ready to put forward.
Consider Liberia’s Liberty Corridor. President Boakai has reaffirmed this ambitious plan to transform Liberia into the gateway to the Atlantic for West Africa. Through expanded rail, road, and port infrastructure — including the Yekepa-to-Buchanan railway — the Liberty Corridor would not only unlock Liberia’s iron ore reserves but also provide Guinea and other landlocked neighbors with reliable access to global markets.
This is the kind of project that makes the U.S. six-point strategy tangible. It links American investors to African growth opportunities. It positions Liberia as a logistical hub for critical minerals — a subject Washington is deeply interested in as it seeks to diversify supply chains away from China. And it creates a platform for regional integration, one of the African Union’s core objectives.
For Africa to pursue its priorities in partnership with the US, our leaders must set the stage for an authentic dialogue — one where they are respected for the power and responsibility they hold, and not ambushed with misinformation or reduced to props for American domestic politics. That stage is Africa itself.
The recent visit to Liberia by Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye and Guinea-Bissau’s Umaro Sissoco Embaló, both of whom joined Boakai at the White House, suggests that quiet conversations are already underway about how to approach the next US-Africa engagement. We expect these talks to coalesce into a bold, unified demand: bring the U.S.-Africa summit to Africa.
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Will Trump agree? That depends on African leaders’ resolve to finally wield their collective leverage. The United States wants access to Africa’s minerals, markets, and political goodwill. That only reaffirms the bargaining power Africa has always had and consistently failed to use. Now is the time to change that.
An invitation to Washington is nothing new. African presidents have been traveling to the U.S. for decades, often returning with little more than photo opportunities and vague promises. What would be new — and transformative — is a U.S.-Africa summit convened on African soil, on Africa’s terms, focused on African priorities.
Trump frames himself as a dealmaker. Let African leaders put a deal on the table: if the United States wants deeper ties with Africa, it must meet us where we are — literally and figuratively. And its President must acknowledge Africa, not as a ‘shithole,’ but as the birthplace of his species and the most valuable piece of real estate on the planet.
Africa does not need another White House summons. It needs to set its own table, sit at the head, and shape its own future.