- His executive order accuses South Africa’s government of seizing property from White landowners and calls for their resettlement as “refugees” in the U.S.
President Donald Trump on Friday signed an executive order halting all U.S. aid to South Africa and directing his administration to develop a plan for resettling White Afrikaners as refugees, citing what he called “government-sponsored race-based discrimination” against them.
The order accuses South Africa’s government of seizing “ethnic minority Afrikaners’ agricultural property without compensation” and enacting “countless government policies designed to dismantle equal opportunity” in employment, education and business. It also claims that South African leaders have “taken aggressive positions towards the United States and its allies,” pointing to the country’s decision to accuse Israel of genocide at the International Court of Justice and its deepening ties with Iran.
“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,” the order states.
South Africa has increasingly found itself in Trump’s crosshairs as he has claimed, without evidence, that its government is seizing White-owned land and persecuting White farmers, The Washington Post previously reported.
The subject of Trump’s criticism appears to be a recent law that allows land expropriation without compensation in rare cases. However, South African officials have said the policy is part of an effort to address disparities left by apartheid, a system that for decades barred Black South Africans from owning land.
Land ownership in South Africa remains one of the starkest legacies of apartheid. White South Africans, who make up about 8 percent of the population, own about three-quarters of the country’s farmland, while Black South Africans, who make up 80 percent of the population, own just 4 percent, according to the country’s 2017 land audit.
Although officials in Pretoria have attempted to frame the land reform as a means to redress this imbalance, they have sparked fierce resistance from White landowners, some of whom argue that their property rights are under attack.
Trump has amplified their grievances, aligning himself with far-right narratives that claim White South Africans are facing state-backed persecution.
“South Africa is confiscating land and treating certain classes of people VERY BADLY,” he wrote on Truth Social this week. In 2018, he ordered his secretary of state to investigate what he called the “large-scale killing of farmers” in South Africa, a claim that was widely debunked by independent crime data and the country’s largest agricultural union.
On Monday, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, in a post on X, pushed back against Trump’s characterization of the law, saying the measure is “not a confiscation instrument, but a constitutionally mandated legal process.” Three days later, Ramaphosa took on a more defiant tone during his State of the Nation address, during which he appeared to directly rebuke the U.S. president’s accusations.
“We will not be bullied,” he said.
Friday’s executive order directs all U.S. agencies to immediately halt foreign assistance to South Africa, including development aid and health programs. The United States provided nearly $440 million in aid to the country in 2023, with the majority of funds allocated to HIV/AIDS treatment through PEPFAR, a program that supports 17 percent of South Africa’s HIV/AIDS response and provides lifesaving medication to millions. The sudden aid freeze is expected to have severe consequences for public health programs.
In addition to cutting aid, Trump’s order instructs the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security to create a plan for resettling White South Africans as refugees. The directive carves out a major exception to Trump’s restrictive immigration policies — including the suspension of the United States Refugee Admission Program for 90 days — which have severely curtailed refugee admissions from conflict zones and areas of humanitarian crises.
While it is unclear whether he influenced the president’s order, Elon Musk, the billionaire CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and a close adviser to Trump, was born in South Africa. Over the past years, he has amplified similar claims on X, accusing the South African government of anti-White racism, and in 2023 alleging that some of the country’s Black, left-wing politicians were “openly pushing for genocide of white people.”
On Monday, Musk doubled down on his claims, asking Ramaphosa on X: “Why do you have openly racist ownership laws?”
After Musk’s attack on X, Ramaphosa had a phone call with the tech billionaire about “issues of misinformation and distortions about South Africa,” his office posted online.
His spokesman, Vincent Magwenya, also responded publicly to Musk, writing: “My brother, you would know that owing to a devastating legacy of centuries of oppressive and brutal colonialism and apartheid, our constitution provides for redressing the ills of the past.”
South Africa has yet to formally respond to Trump’s latest action. Yet, Mineral Resources Minister Gwede Mantashe suggested the country could leverage its mineral exports, which include gold, platinum and manganese.
“If they don’t give us money, let us not give them minerals,” he told a mining conference in Cape Town this week. “We are not just beggars.”
@Washington Post, excluding headline
