A former security adviser to the American president, John Bolton, has alleged that President Donald Trump had wanted to stop $1.5 billion annual aid given to Nigeria.
In his new book titled “In the Room Where It Happened”, Bolton alleged that the president also said funding for military operations in Afghanistan and Syria should be cut but wanted funds released for the US-Mexico border wall.
He said President Trump wondered why America was still providing aids to Africa and “made it clear he wanted out of Africa altogether”.
According to him, Trump complained of how Nigeria receives $1.5b annual aid from the US and still refused to buy its agricultural produce.
“Following more chatter, Patrick Shanahan (then US Defence Secretary) turned to the cost reductions that maintaining the counter-terrorism capability would entail. But before he got too far, Trump broke in to complain about Congress’ refusal to fund the Mexico border wall.
“Then he was off, ‘Why can’t we just get out of Syria and Afghanistan? I never should have agreed to the other two hundred (in Syria), and it’s really 400 anyway…’ Then after literally 45 seconds back on Afghanistan, Trump asked, ‘Why are we in Africa?’
“He soon made it clear he wanted out of Africa altogether, expounding for some time on our $22 trillion national debt, followed by the problems of our balance-of-trade deficits, followed by complaining, again, about how Nigeria received $1.5bn annually in foreign aid, as he said the President of Nigeria had confirmed to him in an earlier visit, even though they wouldn’t buy US farm products.”
Trump’s administration had made attempts to prevent the release of the book which was yesterday.
The book depicts Trump’s foreign policy as “reckless and driven by personal interest” among others.
