(José Niño, Headline USA) President Donald Trump is not happy with South Africa. He recently halted all federal funding for the African country, and called on its white farmers to obtain citizenship in the United States in a post on his Truth Social platform last Friday.
“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,” Trump wrote in his post on Truth Social.
“A bad place to be right now, and we are stopping all Federal Funding. 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!”
Trump’s comments came at a time when the Trump administration has been butting heads over South Africa’s Expropriation Act. This law was signed in January by President Cyril Ramaphosa of the ruling African National Congress party.
The legislation ostensibly aimed to close land ownership disparities brought about by the country’s previous apartheid regime (1948-1994) past by allowing the government to carry out land expropriation in the public interest.
Although the law allows expropriation without compensation in certain cases, the South African government claims that private property rights would still be respected.
Trump’s stance reflects concerns brought forth by several right-wing organizations in the United States and South Africa’s white minority, above all Boer farmers, who contend that the law unjustly targets them. Additionally, they have cited cases of violence launched against farmers in South Africa.
Trump’s vow to slash all federal funding to South Africa builds upon an executive order he signed in February halting assistance to the country as a response to the passage of the Expropriation Act. He perceives this law as a violation of the property rights of South Africa’s white community, the Boers.
“The law is designed to correct historical injustices and ensure that land reform is conducted in an orderly and legally sound manner,” a spokesperson for the ANC government countered in January.
The Democratic Alliance, an opposition party in South Africa, said the following about the law last month: “We reject this Act because we believe that no government in a democratic country should be given such sweeping powers to expropriate property without compensation.”
A delegation of leaders from AfriForum — a civil rights organization that defends the interests of white Afrikanners — and its partner organizations visited the White House officials after Trump issued the order.
AfriForum CEO Kallie Kriel, who was a member of the delegation to the White House, asserted at the time: “It’s President Ramaphosa that signed the Expropriation Act. It’s President Ramaphosa that refuses to condemn slogans such as kill the Boer. It’s President Ramaphosa that denies the existence of farmer murders.”
Trump’s latest proposal to grant expedited citizenship to South African farmers would require executive action or legislative action — both chambers of Congress passing a bill addressing this matter.
Trump’s executive order also cited the African nation’s “aggressive” positions against the United States by accusing Israel of committing a genocide in Gaza and also by “reinvigorating its [South Africa’s] relationship with Iran.”
José Niño is the deputy editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/JoseAlNino
