Mobutu Sese Seko

Since the 1960s, $2.6 trillion in aid to Africa paradoxically worsened poverty and corruption, with Sub-Saharan Africa's extreme poor rising from 11 percent to 66 percent between 1970 and 1988, as fungible aid enabled theft and severed democratic accountability.

President Trump earned over $2.2 billion since returning to the White House, prompting scholars to draw comparisons with authoritarian leaders in Africa and Asia who blur lines between public office and personal wealth accumulation.