American taxpayers are supporting cellphone networks in sub-Saharan Africa, airlines in Turkey, and a host of other large-scale infrastructure projects worldwide as part of President Donald Trump's plan to increase America's influence internationally, presumably to break China's stranglehold on the global critical mineral supply chain.
In FY 2025, the U.S. Export-Import Bank (EXIM)—a federal credit agency that provides loans and guarantees to international buyers of American goods, and insurance to domestic exporters when the private sector is unwilling or unable to take the risk—approved $5.03 billion in loans and long-term guarantees across 23 transactions. The Trump administration authorized 16 of those deals, for a total of $3.39 billion. Since the start of Trump's second term, EXIM has authorized $4.83 billion in spending through project and structured finance—the bank's most flexible financing options—alone. That's 61 percent more than the $2.99 billion the Biden administration approved under the same vehicle.
