Since his first term, Donald Trump has fundamentally reshaped U.S. policy to counter China, which he views as America’s primary hegemonic rival.
The Trump administration has made breaking free from dependence on Chinese rare earths a top strategic priority. To advance this agenda, it has turned to GreenMet.
Founded by CEO Drew Horn, GreenMet recently sent a delegation to Yaoundé for a low-profile meeting. Horn, a former national security official who served as senior adviser to the Director of National Intelligence under Trump, is the public face of a U.S. program whose partners include former close Trump aides such as George Sorial, former legal counsel to Trump, and Keith Schiller, former director of security for the Trump Organization.
At the heart of this U.S. strategy, a delegation of senior American officials visited Cameroon to sign memorandums of understanding (MoUs) whose contents have never been disclosed by the American group. What is known is that American Renaissance Minerals (ARM), directly linked to GreenMet, is now in pole position for the Nkamouna nickel and cobalt project. And that is not all: Washington also has its eyes on rare earths.
Trump is so committed to his Cameroon agenda that he bypassed a congressional restriction that excluded Cameroon from AGOA. The U.S. president now relies on the American Chamber of Commerce in Cameroon (AmCham) to facilitate trade deals.
Unlike China, which is present in the Democratic Republic of Congo for strategic minerals, the United States — which aims to invest in local processing to reduce its carbon footprint — has conditioned its support to the government on transparency in the extractive and legal sectors. U.S. intelligence has reportedly stepped in following EITI revelations about illicit gold trafficking; Washington is working with Yaoundé to expose those responsible for this plunder.
And the U.S. is not stopping there. American diplomacy has cut by more than half the number of African countries eligible to issue U.S. visas. Cameroon is among the 20 selected out of 50 African nations. On the security front, within 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 relations, and create partnerships, including joint ventures between U.S. and Cameroonian firms. This benefits both countries: it creates jobs in the United States, supports U.S. industry — a priority for President Trump — and also boosts the Cameroonian economy,” said Christopher Lamora early this year after a meeting with President Paul Biya.
Washington aims to counter China, which has invested over $700 billion in 49 African countries. Some observers of Trump’s policy see an ambition to transform target countries like Cameroon, Nigeria, and Kenya into modern-day “Asian dragons” (South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore).
