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President-elect Trump is expected to nominate Joe Foltz, staff director for the Republican side of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, to lead the Africa desk at the National Security Council (NSC), according to an aide to congress
Foltz served on the NSC during Trump’s first term and also served at the United States Agency for International Development during the Biden administration, as head of the humanitarian affairs division and director of legislative affairs.
Trump’s transition team would not confirm the appointment.
“President-elect Trump has made brilliant decisions about who will serve in his second administration at a blistering pace. The remaining decisions will continue to be announced by him as they are made,” said Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s incoming House press secretary. white
During his time on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Foltz is credited as the driving force behind a bill to establish the United States Foundation for International Conservation (USFIC), a public-private initiative that funds conservation efforts worldwide. The legislation also aims to undermine the malign influence of China and Russia in Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia.
The bipartisan bill was included in the National Defense Authorization Act of 2025 and was co-sponsored in the House by committee chairman Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) and ranking member Rep. Gregory Meeks (DN.Y). .).
Foltz shared a post this week on the social media platform X from Florida Rep. Mike Waltz (R), Trump’s incoming national security adviser, saying that anyone working with the NSC “will be fully aligned with his agenda America First”.
“Any rumors or suggestions to the contrary are fake news and a distraction from the mission. We will clear the decks to make America great again! Waltz wrote in the post.
Discussion of the priorities of America’s relations with Africa was largely absent from Trump’s campaign rhetoric, and in 2018, he criticized immigration from Africa’s “s—hole countries.”
The Biden administration and Congress have sought to elevate ties with African nations amid growing competition for resources and influence with Russia and China on the continent. Lawmakers included in the National Defense Authorization Act that a leaders-level summit between US and African leaders should take place at least in 2026 and every two years thereafter.
Trump did not visit the continent while serving as president, but he did endorse plans by then-national security adviser John Bolton to recognize Morocco’s claims of sovereignty over Western Sahara.
Trump also removed Sudan from the list of state sponsors of terrorism, as part of efforts to get Khartoum to establish relations with Israel. But civil war broke out in that country in 2023, and the Biden administration has sanctioned a top general and determined that the general’s paramilitary forces, the Rapid Support Forces, have committed genocide.
President Biden made a historic trip to Angola in early December, his first and only trip to the continent. But experts say that while the administration set ambitious goals to elevate US-Africa ties, there was little follow-through.
“In his nearly four years in office, President Biden has hosted fewer than a handful of Africans for visits to the Oval Office. He makes phone calls to African leaders with similar frequency,” Cameron Hudson, senior fellow at Africa Program of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. wrote in an article which was shared by Foltz at X.
Hudson previously told The Hill that he wasn’t convinced Trump would make a big policy shift on Africa.
“I think Trump will have a narrower view, a more defined view of what America’s interests are in Africa,” he said. “(Trump) will be very clear about what he cares about and what he doesn’t care about.”
