The Congolese government has terminated a $5 million lobbying contract with an American public relations firm, opting for direct talks with the Donald Trump administration.

Kinshasa announced this week the suspension of all efforts aimed at facilitating closer relations and economic cooperation with the United States, and Tina Salama, President Félix Tshisekedi’s spokeswoman, said “in view of the mutually expressed desire to relaunch strategic partnerships between the two administrations, the Democratic Republic of Congo has retained in its approach the imperative of favouring direct exchanges with the new American administration, through official and authorised channels.”In a press release, the presidency added that it was immediately suspending “until further notice, any lobbying contracts, approaches or proposals made or entered into between it and US entities, firms or practices specialising in this field, in particular the contract with Earhart Turner Llc.”The lobbying and public relations firm signed the six-month contract on March 6, 2025, less than a month after opening its doors, to help the DRC strengthen its “global influence.”Announcing the deal, the firm said President Tshisekedi had asked its president, Karen Giorno, a Trump ally who has advised presidents, to help with PR, including lobbying the US Congress.

Ms Giorno was Donald Trump’s chief strategist in Florida during the 2016 campaign.

For the DRC, the cancellation of the deal is meant to consolidate efforts to re-engage its relations with the US, and comes days after Trump’s special envoy Massad Boulos visited the country and held discussions with Tshisekedi.

The trip, which also included Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya - countries involved in one way or another in the conflict in eastern Congo and peace efforts around it - was seen as setting the stage for a mineral deal between Congo and the US.

Read: Trump’s in-law tours Kenya, Great Lakes with eyes on Congo mineralsCongolese Senator Jean Bamanisa, who is also a former governor of Ituri province in the troubled eastern DRC, said that there was a “multiplicity of approaches and stakeholders in the search for and management of partnerships linked to natural resources.”“This multiplicity of approaches does not produce effective and efficient results for the country,” he added.

He declared that it was essential to “change the paradigm in order to capitalise for the benefit of the country, in terms of security, infrastructure, education, health, administration, roads and urban drainage networks and others, according to the interests of these countries and those of the DRC.”When Trump’s senior adviser for Africa, Boulos, visited the country in early April, he and his entourage, which included Dan Dunham, the National Security Council’s director for Africa, and other senior Trump administration officials, focused their discussions “primarily on the security situation in eastern DRC and the economic prospects between the United States and the DRC, two countries that enjoy strategic cooperation,” the presidency said.

Mr Boulos said: “You have heard about an agreement on minerals. We heard about the DRC’s proposal, and I’m pleased to say that the President and I have agreed on a path forward for its development. I look forward to working with President Félix Tshisekedi and his team to build a deeper relationship that benefits the Congolese people and the American people, and to stimulate US private sector investment in the DRC, particularly in the mining sector, with the shared goal of contributing to the prosperity of our two countries.”Read: US open to minerals partnerships with DR Congo“Of course, we need as conducive an environment for business as possible to achieve that goal. Rest assured that American companies are operating transparently and will stimulate local economies. We are talking about multi-billion-dollar investments. We are talking about jobs, knowledge transfer and investment in infrastructure. There can be no economic prosperity without security.”Congo hopes to gain from US security services, military equipment and intelligence.

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