Technofascism Without the Mask: Trump 2.0 and the Gutting of U.S. Diplomacy in Africa

By Prince Kapone, Weaponized Information | April 21, 2025

The Neocolonial Smile Fades

The mask is off. According to a leaked draft order reported by the South China Morning Post, President Donald Trump—now comfortably enthroned in his second term—is preparing to gut U.S. diplomatic spending across the African continent. Embassies are being closed, aid programs slashed, and “non-essential diplomatic personnel” recalled. Gone is the liberal fiction of partnership. Gone is the façade of “development.” What’s left is raw power—military bases, mining contracts, and billionaire envoys in pinstripes.

From Soft Power to Hard Empire

Let’s be clear: U.S. diplomacy in Africa was never about mutual respect. It was a velvet glove on the iron fist of empire. From Peace Corps missionaries to State Department advisors, the role of “soft power” was always to co-opt elites, pacify resistance, and secure the pathways of capital. But with the global order in crisis and the rise of China challenging U.S. hegemony, the Yankee faction has no more time—or money—for pageantry.

Trump’s move is not isolationism. It’s consolidation. It marks a shift from globalist soft power to nationalist hard extraction. Instead of diplomats pushing “democracy,” we’ll see private contractors securing lithium mines. Instead of USAID feeding children, BlackRock will be feeding supply chains. The technofascist state doesn’t do development—it does data, drones, and debt.

Colonialism Upgraded

Trump’s Africa policy is not new—it’s simply the imperial script spoken louder, with less shame. Under Obama, AFRICOM expanded into nearly every African country. Under Biden, aid dollars were weaponized to push political compliance with U.S. economic interests. Under Trump 2.0, the gloves come off. No more liberal language. No more NGO euphemisms. Just raw empire, fortified by tariffs, sanctions, and Starlink satellites beaming surveillance from above.

In reality, this “gutting” of diplomacy is not a retreat—it’s a recalibration. Washington is trading in its old diplomatic toolkit for a new arsenal: AI-driven military logistics, proxy regimes, and compliant oligarchies. Technofascism doesn’t need embassies—it needs encryption, access to rare earths, and ports controlled by venture capital.

The Imperial Pivot: Toward Corporate Colonialism

If Trump gets his way, we’re witnessing the formal handover of African policy from the U.S. State Department to Wall Street. Embassies close, but investment firms open. Diplomats leave, but lobbyists and private equity funds stay. From the Congo to Namibia, African economies are being absorbed into a hyper-imperial logistics grid, where infrastructure is privatized, workers are disposable, and the only flag that matters is the one on the cargo ship.

This is empire without borders. Corporate-led imperialism backed by military deterrence. A decentralized global dictatorship of capital. A world where presidents are clients, and entire countries exist to service Western supply chains.

What Africa Remembers

But the continent remembers. From Lumumba to Sankara, from the Mau Mau to the Marikana miners, Africa has known the true face of empire. The current pivot away from “diplomacy” only affirms what many already know: U.S. power was never benevolent. The question now is not whether Africa can survive without U.S. aid—but whether it can rise by breaking from the imperial system altogether.

The battle ahead is not between U.S. diplomats and Chinese investors. It is between Africa’s working classes and the comprador elites who sell out their people for foreign profit. Trump’s policy may be blunt, but it clarifies the stakes: either Africa remains a playground for imperial capital, or it becomes a battleground for liberation.

The End of Pretenses

The gutting of U.S. diplomacy in Africa is not a failure of foreign policy—it’s the full expression of it. It reveals a system that never cared about development, only domination. As the U.S. empire recalibrates toward open technofascism, the Global South must recalibrate towards multipolarity—with clarity, with memory, and with revolutionary resolve.

Let the masks fall. Let the contradictions sharpen. And let the struggle for a decolonized world intensify.