Racially-tinged unrest in South Africa has prompted President Donald Trump to weigh in with an offer to assist white farmers who are crying “genocide” in response to a new eminent domain law they say will put them out of business and is contributing to increased violence on their lands.
In a post on Truth Social, President Trump promised to halt all U.S. financial assistance to South Africa until its leaders repeal the Expropriation Act 13 of 2024, which enables the government to “seize ethnic minority Afrikaners’ agricultural property without compensation.”
“South Africa is being terrible, plus, to long time Farmers in the country. They are confiscating their LAND and FARMS, and MUCH WORSE THAN THAT. A bad place to be right now, and we are stopping all Federal Funding,” Trump wrote. “To go a step further, any Farmer (with family!) from South Africa, seeking to flee that country for reasons of safety, will be invited into the United States of America with a rapid pathway to Citizenship. This process will begin immediately!”
President Trump has previously referred to a “large-scale killing of farmers” while Elon Musk, a native South African, has decried “racist ownership laws” and the “genocide of white people,” according to the BBC.
The status of farmers has been a polarizing issue in South African politics, galvanizing conservative voters and politicians to demonstrate against President Cyril Ramaphosa after he signed the controversial bill into law earlier this year.
“South Africa is confiscating land, and treating certain classes of people VERY BADLY,” Trump wrote in another post last month. “Massive Human Rights VIOLATION, at a minimum, is happening for all to see.”
Today’s offer of sanctuary for white farmers who expatriate to the U.S. is just the first step in bringing the hammer down on a once-friendly ally who has given the cold shoulder, especially since Israel’s military campaign to eliminate Hamas.
“This Act follows countless government policies designed to dismantle equal opportunity in employment, education, and business, and hateful rhetoric and government actions fueling disproportionate violence against racially disfavored landowners,” reads an executive order signed by Trump on Friday, according to the Post Millennial.
“In addition, South Africa has taken aggressive positions towards the United States and its allies, including accusing Israel, not Hamas, of genocide in the International Court of Justice, and reinvigorating its relations with Iran to develop commercial, military, and nuclear arrangements.”
The order continued, “The United States cannot support the government of South Africa’s commission of rights violations in its country or its ‘undermining United States foreign policy, which poses national security threats to our Nation, our allies, our African partners, and our interests.”
Most of the funding cut off by Trump has gone toward funding HIV/AIDS treatment in South Africa and will remain off “until a full investigation of this situation has been completed!” he wrote.
It is estimated that white South African farmers own approximately three-quarters of the country’s land, and Ramaphosa’s law allows the government to confiscate portions in certain instances if it’s found to be unused or in the public’s interest, according to NBC News. The government said in a statement to the outlet that it “hasn’t confiscated any land,” but Trump and Musk have vowed to continue resettling white farmer refugees in the U.S. until the country’s new law is off the books.
