President Joe Biden garnered national headlines this week when he pardoned his son Hunter — but a Washington Post columnist argued Thursday evening it was something else he did that was "most important."
"The most important thing President Joe Biden did this week had nothing to do with his son Hunter," columnist Eugene Robinson wrote. "It was his trip to Angola, which sought to put the United States back on the map in a region where much of the world’s future will be shaped."
Robinson noted that this is shaping up to be an "African century" — as the continent's population is expected to climb to 2.5 billion by 2050 from 1.5 billion this year.
"At that point, one of every four human beings on the planet will be African," he said, noting that as the populations age and even decline in other parts of the world, Africa stands to become home to a larger share of the world's working adults.
"Quite simply, demography is destiny," he said — a fact "lost" on Republicans who criticized Biden's announcement of $1 billion in aid to 31 countries in the region.
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That includes Nikki Haley, Presdient-elect Trump's former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, who blasted Biden on X of handing money to African countries when Americans are still reeling from hurricane damage.
"Completely tone deaf and insulting," she said.
Robinson called Haley a "nativist" who just wants to "score a political point."
While Republicans decry the donation, Robinson notes America's adversaries are doing even more to help the region. That includes China pledging $51 billion in investments across the continent over the next three years and building railways in several countries, as well as Russia becoming the continent's "biggest arms supplier and using mercenary forces" to boost certain factions in unstable countries.
"Ultimately, it will be Nigerians, South Africans, Ethiopians, Angolans and the people of other African nations who decide the continent’s future. They will remember who was there beside them all along. And who was not," Robinson concluded.
