White South Africans Rally To Suport Trump As Tensions Between Countries Rise

White South Africans gathered at the U.S. Embassy in Pretoria in support of President Donald Trump, echoing his claims that they are victims of racism from the South African government. Tensions between the United States and South Africa have escalated due to recent actions by Trump concerning South Africa’s white minority population. White South Africans constitute 7% of the population and own 70% of private farmland.

Last week, Trump signed an executive order stopping all aid to South Africa and offering refugee status to white South Africans. President Cyril Ramaphosa signed an expropriation act last month aiming to redress land inequalities that stem from South Africa’s history of white supremacy. 

Trump’s plan to cut aid to South Africa would stop nearly half a billion dollars a year in funding, most of which pays for the world’s largest HIV/AIDS program. His selective immigration policy, favoring white South Africans while restricting refugees from other regions, is being called “racist” by critics.

On Saturday, two groups representing Afrikaners said they would not accept Trump’s offer of resettlement in the U.S. The previous day, protestors paraded banners that read “Thank God for President Trump” and referenced South African policies.

The Afrikaner rights group AfriForum has played a significant role in shaping Trump’s perspective. AfriForum portrays white farmers as victims of racially targeted violence, a narrative that has resonated with Trump.

The Trump administration accused the South African government of allowing violent attacks on white Afrikaner farmers and stated that the expropriation act enables it to “seize ethnic minority Afrikaners’ agricultural property without compensation” when no land has been taken under the act. The land has been bought at market prices and redistributed.

Trump and Elon Musk, who was born in South Africa, have repeatedly accused the South African government of anti-white racism, which Ramaphosa denied, saying Trump’s description of the new land law is full of misinformation and distortions. 

Musk has voiced his opposition to “openly racist ownership laws” in South Africa, calling for the government to exempt the sale of his Starlink satellite network from regulations to require major business deals to include black investors. In September, AfriForum launched a campaign on Musk’s behalf that claimed black empowerment laws were leaving white farmers vulnerable to attack by keeping the satellite network out of South Africa.