As US aid budgets contract, some of the world’s most vulnerable countries are turning to Trump-affiliated lobbyists for alternatives. Global Witness finds that eleven low-income nations have allocated large sums—totaling around $17 million—to firms like Ballard Partners and BGR Government Affairs.
These governments are offering tangible assets: DRC is leveraging its cobalt and lithium for US security ties; Somalia and Yemen are paying to amplify their appeals to Washington; Pakistan invests heavily to keep afloat strategic conversations.
The trend reveals a deeper story: mineral-rich nations grappling with wavering diplomatic goodwill now resort to wealth transfers—monetary and natural resource—to preserve their voice internationally.
Critics caution that such transactional diplomacy threatens to erode fairness, redirecting aid from humanitarian relief to resource leverage by wealthier states.
