Five leaders from Africa endorsed President Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize as they advocated for their countries’ interests at the White House.
Leaders from Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mauritania, and Senegal praised Trump for his foreign policy, particularly last month’s peace deal between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, ending the 30-year war and potentially providing the U.S. with access to their rare earth minerals, including the DRC’s coltan supply.
“I think that President Trump deserves it for all the efforts that he’s worked on,” Gabon President Brice Oligui Nguema told Trump on Wednesday. “He brought peace back in… my region, the region where the DRC and Rwanda signed a deal… So I believe that he does deserve a Nobel Peace Prize.”
“Mr. President, I believe that we have to continue to support Americans in the strength to be able to bring about peace in the world,” Liberian President Joseph Boakai added. “I want to encourage you, because without peace, we cannot work together, and we stand with you with that.”
Guinea-Bissau President Umaro Sissoco Embalo expressed his hope that Trump can apply his peace-making skills to the war between Russia and Ukraine.
“The weight of President Trump is something else altogether,” Sissoco Embalo said. “We are with you. We are behind you to see what we can do to help bring peace back. No one wins when there’s war.”
During the African leaders’ introductions, Trump asked the leaders speaking after Mauritania President Mohamed Ould Ghazouani to truncate their remarks.
“Maybe we’re gonna have to go a bit quicker than this because we have a whole schedule,” he said. “If I could just have your name and country it would be great.”
At the same time, Trump had enough time for all the leaders to answer a reporter’s question about whether they were considering nominating him for a Nobel Peace Prize after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu proposed the president’s name for the honor earlier this week.
“That’s a very nice reporter,” he said. “I didn’t know I’d be treated this nicely. This is great. We could do this all day long.”
Trump was also asked about the prospect of him traveling to Africa during his second term, to which he said he “absolutely” had the intention to make it to the continent.
“We’re going to see what the schedule is, but at some point I would like to,” the president said.
Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye demonstrated the best example on Wednesday of foreign leaders continuing to personally appeal to Trump as they make the case for their respective countries.
“I know you are a tremendous golf player,” Diomaye Faye told the president. “Senegal has exceptional opportunities to offer, including in the area of tourism. So perhaps an investment could be made in a golf course in Senegal… That would be an opportunity for you to show off your skills on the golf course.”
While all parties remained polite in the company of reporters, underlying tensions simmered as the African leaders previewed their position that minerals and other raw materials be processed domestically in order to create and protect jobs in their own countries.
During Trump’s own opening remarks, the president underscored his administration’s dismantling of the United States Agency for International Development, which used to help many African countries, and emphasized his preference for trade, not aid, after $2.5 billion in new economic deals were announced at last month’s U.S.-Africa Business Summit.
“My administration is committed to strengthening our friendships in Africa through economic development efforts that benefit both the U.S. and our partners, and we’re shifting from A-I-D to trade,” the president said. “We have closed the USAID group to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse… and we’re working tirelessly to forge new economic opportunities involving both the United States and many African nations.
He continued, “This will be far more effective, and sustainable, and beneficial than anything else that we could be doing together.”