After gutting humanitarian assistance for Africa, President Trump told five leaders from the continent at the White House on Wednesday that his administration was recalibrating its policy for the region to focus on trade.
“We’re shifting from A.I.D. to trade,” Mr. Trump told the leaders of Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mauritania and Senegal, adding that his administration had recently closed the United States Agency for International Development. “We’re working tirelessly to forge new economic opportunities involving both the United States and many African nations. There’s great economic potential in Africa, like few other places.”
In many ways, the meeting crystallized the Trump administration’s conflicting approach to the continent. The president has hosted several African dignitaries at the White House in recent weeks as he seeks to strike deals that can expand the United States’ access to critical minerals and to counter China’s influence on the continent.
But Mr. Trump’s dismantling of U.S.A.I.D. has also left African countries reeling. U.S. aid to Liberia, for example, amounted to 2.6 percent of the country’s gross national income before it was cut. That was the highest percentage for any nation in the world, according to the Center for Global Development.
Mr. Trump also used the meeting on Wednesday to ask the leaders to help his administration crack down on African immigrants who overstay their visas in the United States. Mr. Trump said he wanted to work with the nations on so-called “safe third-country agreements,” which Mr. Trump aides have described as deals with governments to take in deported migrants who are not citizens of those nations.
U.S. diplomats have for months targeted several countries in Africa and Asia for the deportation deals, including Mauritania and Gabon.
The president was joined in the meeting by the State Department’s senior adviser for Africa, Massad Boulos, and the architect of the president’s immigration agenda, Stephen Miller.
Mr. Trump said he was open to traveling to Africa at some point during his second term. “We’re going to see what the schedule is, but I would like to do that very much,” he said.
Despite the president’s overall optimistic tone, his administration is considering expanding a travel ban to four of the five countries represented by the leaders, according to a State Department cable last month. Only Guinea-Bissau has not been considered for a travel ban so far.
The West African country was instrumental in organizing the meeting. Mr. Boulos, and President Umaro Sissoco Embaló of Guinea-Bissau initially organized the visit, according to a White House official. It was later expanded to include the other four nations.
The African leaders appeared to come to the White House well aware of Mr. Trump’s priorities.
Many of the leaders also made clear their countries had a healthy supply of a natural resources that Mr. Trump has made no secret of coveting.
“We have a great deal of resources,” President Mohamed Ould Ghazouani of Mauritania told Mr. Trump. “Many, many resources, and we have a lot of opportunities to offer investment. We have minerals.”
Later, Mr. Trump seemed taken aback when President Joseph Boakai of Liberia spoke to the round table in English.
“Where did you learn to speak so beautifully?” Mr. Trump said before asking where Mr. Boakai was “educated” on the language. English is the official language of Liberia.
“Beautiful English,” Mr. Trump said.
President Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema of Gabon said his country welcomed U.S. investment. But he warned Mr. Trump that another nation would fill any void created by the United States.
“Our country is free, open to one and all,” Mr. Nguema said. “You are welcome to come and invest. Otherwise, other countries might come instead of you.”
The United States lags behind China when it comes to asserting its influence throughout Africa. Gabon, for example, has signed more than $4.3 billion in investment deals with China. Beijing also built the only highway in Guinea-Bissau, according to the Brookings Institution.
“China has outpaced the United States in both economic and political influence in many African countries — including those invited to the summit,” Landry Signé, a senior fellow in the Global Economy and Development Program and the Africa Growth Initiative, wrote for the Brookings Institution.
“By convening this summit and explicitly linking diplomacy with commercial partnership,” Mr. Signé added, “the Trump administration seems to be seeking to both accelerate U.S. trade and investment and reassert strategic presence in a region where America’s influence has been eroding.”
Still, the African leaders expressed optimism over working with Mr. Trump. They praised his administration’s work to facilitate the signing of the peace deal between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Mr. Trump said he hoped to invite the leaders of those two countries back to the White House soon to finalize the agreement.
Mr. Trump also said his administration was working to secure peace in Sudan and Libya.
“There’s a lot of anger on your continent,” he told the African leaders. “We’ve been able to solve a lot of it.”
In fact, the fighting in Eastern Congo has continued.
Saikou Jammeh contributed reporting from Dakar, Senegal.
Zolan Kanno-Youngs is a White House correspondent for The Times, covering President Trump and his administration.
Ruth Maclean is the West Africa bureau chief for The Times, covering 25 countries including Nigeria, Congo, the countries in the Sahel region as well as Central Africa.
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