This much is clear—Donald Trump has a plan to make America as unwelcoming to foreigners as possible. Between his wretched presidency and cabinet full of deplorables, his backward immigration policies and random, useless travel bans, it will be amazing if anyone actually wants to come visit this country in the next four years.
Every day, evidence of this administration’s ridiculous attempts to keep nearly everyone (who isn’t white) out of the country come to light and yet another stark example was found during last week’s African Global and Economic Development (AGED) Summit. The AGED is a yearly event for African delegations to meet with officials and business leaders in the United States and this year’s event took place in Los Angeles at the University of Southern California. Except one group of attendees was notably absent—all the Africans. That’s right. Not a single invited African delegate attended the summit because every one of them was denied a visa to enter the country.
Mary Flowers, chair of the summit, told VOA that during the previous three summits around 40 per cent of attendees were denied visas. “This year, it was 100 per cent. Every delegation. And it was sad to see, because these people were so disheartened.”
She estimated that around 100 guests, from Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and South Africa, were unable to attend.
How about that? An actual event about development in Africa without the presence of any African leaders, business people, artists, innovators and other stakeholders who may be interested in learning and exchanging ideas. Some of the delegates had applied for their travel visas months and weeks prior to the conference, only to be called for interviews at the last minute and to find themselves subsequently rejected just days before the conference. And of course, the travel ban only applies to three African countries—Libya, Somalia and Sudan, so while there is always a chance of rejection, there seem to be almost no discernible reasons why the number of rejections for the conference went from 40 percent to 100 percent this year. Except for one—Trump and company’s increasing paranoia of non-white people and foreigners. The irony here is that you’d think Trump would have learned from his bizarre competition with China given that China has been taking advantage of growth and opportunity and has been investing in Africa for years. But then again, learning is not the Trump way.
And there we have it. The world’s former global leader, the US, making xenophobia, stupidity and ignorance formal policy. How truly embarrassing.