(Luis Cornelio, Headline USA) President Donald Trump wasted no time in expressing his disapproval of South Africa’s controversial land seizure laws that empower the local government to reportedly discriminate against white South Africans, Headline USA has learned.
On Friday, Trump imposed sanctions on South Africa, freezing all U.S. aid and offering to resettle Afrikaner refugees—South Africans of European descent—who have been targeted by “government-sponsored race-based discrimination.”
The sanctions, announced on Friday through an executive order, are significant, especially considering that the U.S. provided $453 million in taxpayer dollars in 2024 alone, according to the Institute for Security Studies, a South African non-profit.
Trump’s move came in response to South Africa’s enactment of the “Expropriation Act 13 of 2024,” a law that allows the government to seize property from ethnic minority Afrikaners without compensation.
Left-wing media outlets claim the law aims to resolve so-called inequalities from South African apartheid. The law vaguely stipulates the government can seize specific property in the name of “public interest.”
Trump’s executive order criticized the law, noting that it mirrors other policies “designed to dismantle equal opportunity in employment, education, and business, and hateful rhetoric and government actions fueling disproportionate violence against racially disfavored landowners.”
Trump addressed the law in a Feb. 2 post Truth Social post, accusing South Africa of “confiscating land, and treating certain classes of people VERY BADLY.”
“A massive Human Rights VIOLATION, at a minimum, is happening for all to see,” Trump warned. “The United States won’t stand for it, we will act. Also, I will be cutting off all future funding to South Africa until a full investigation of this situation has been completed!”
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa defiantly dismissed Trump’s threats, claiming his country would “not be bullied.”
“We are witnessing the rise of nationalism, protectionism, the pursuit of narrow interests and the decline of common cause,” Ramaphosa dubiously claimed. “But we are not daunted to navigate our path through this world that constantly changes. We will not be deterred. We are, as South Africans, a resilient people.”
