Trump revives ‘America First’ agenda, declares end to policing Kenya, Somalia
US President Donald Trump has revived his old playbook—this time with sharper edges. Addressing senior military officials in Washington, the US president declared that the era of America “policing the far reaches of Kenya and Somalia” is over.
“After spending trillions of dollars defending the borders of foreign countries, we’re defending the borders of our country from now on,” he said to a roomful of generals, striking a familiar “America First” tone that rattled allies.
Trump’s remarks signalled a decisive inward turn, reprioritising domestic defence over international commitments.
“We’ve brought back the fundamental principle that defending the homeland is the military’s first and most important priority,” he added—a not-so-subtle critique of Washington’s previous global entanglements.
The timing of the comments was striking. They came the same day the UN Security Council approved a resolution transitioning Kenya’s police-led Multinational Security Support Mission (MSS) in Haiti into a more heavily armed “Gang Suppression Force.”
For Nairobi, a recently designated major non-NATO ally, Trump’s statement sounded like a warning: future US support for allied interventions may not be guaranteed.
Kenya has long aligned itself with US priorities, from counterterrorism operations in East Africa to leading the Haiti mission under a Democrat administration.
But Trump’s message suggests that even close partners may soon need to fend for themselves. Washington, while backing the UN’s Haiti transition plan, has quietly insisted it will no longer “carry the lion’s share” of the mission’s cost.
“We cannot continue to carry the bulk of the financial burden,” Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau said.
The shift comes as President William Ruto faces growing criticism over Kenya’s commitment to Haiti.
Ruto defended the mission as “an imperfect but necessary experiment,” admitting operational shortfalls—broken-down American vehicles, inadequate logistics, and the death of a Kenyan policeman towing a vehicle in Port-au-Prince.
He argued that the force, though running at “only 40 per cent strength,” had reopened schools and hospitals in gang-held zones
