Since his first term, Donald Trump has fundamentally reshaped US policy to counter China, which he sees as the primary threat to American dominance.
The Trump administration has made breaking China’s grip on rare earth minerals a top strategic priority. To lead this offensive, it relies on GreenMet.
Founded by CEO Drew Horn, the company sent Horn to Yaoundé a few months ago for a low-profile meeting. Horn, a former national security official under Trump who served as a top advisor to the Director of National Intelligence, is the public face of an American program whose partners include former close Trump associates: George Sorial (former legal counsel to Trump) and Keith Schiller (former Director of Security for the Trump Organization).
At the heart of the US strategy, driven by Horn and GreenMet, a delegation of senior American officials traveled to Cameroon to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) whose details have never been disclosed by the American group. However, we do know that American Renaissance Minerals (ARM), directly linked to GreenMet, is now in a leading position for the Nkamouna nickel and cobalt project. And that’s not all: Washington also has its sights set on rare earth elements.
Donald Trump is so committed to his ambitions for Cameroon that he bypassed a Congressional restriction that had excluded Cameroon from AGOA. The US president now relies on the American Chamber of Commerce in Cameroon (AmCham) to facilitate trade agreements.
Unlike China, which is active in the DRC on strategic minerals, the United States—aiming to invest in processing to reduce the carbon footprint at home—has conditioned its support for the government on transparency in extractive and legal sectors.
US intelligence reportedly stepped in after EITI revelations about illegal gold trafficking; Washington is now working with Yaoundé to expose those responsible for this plunder.
And the US is not stopping there. American diplomacy has cut by more than half the number of African countries eligible to issue US visas. Among the 20 countries selected out of 50 in Africa, Cameroon is included. On the security front, in just eight months, President Paul Biya successively received in Yaoundé: General Dagvin Anderson, then commander of AFRICOM, in September 2025, and Lieutenant General John William Brennan Jr., deputy commander of AFRICOM, in May 2026.
Improving the business climate is a priority for Washington:
“I would sincerely like to see more American companies invest in Cameroon, develop trade relationships and create partnerships, including joint ventures between US and Cameroonian firms. This benefits both countries: it creates jobs in the United States, supports American industry—which is a priority of President Trump—and also boosts the Cameroonian economy,” said Christopher Lamora earlier this year after a one-on-one meeting with President Paul Biya.
Washington aims to take on the challenge posed by China, which has invested over $700 billion across 49 African countries.
Some analysts of Trump’s policy see in his strategy a desire to transform target countries like Cameroon, Nigeria and Kenya into modern-day versions of the “Asian dragons” (South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore) from an earlier era.
