Trump Stops All Aid to South Africa Over Anti-White Govt Policy

President Donald Trump swiped at "terrible" South Africa, said he was stopping all federal funding for the country, and invited its farmers to seek citizenship in the U.S. in a post on his Truth Social platform Friday morning.

"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.

"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 remarks come amid ongoing tensions over South Africa's Expropriation Act, signed into law in January by President Cyril Ramaphosa of the ruling ANC party.

The legislation aims to address land ownership disparities rooted in the country's apartheid past by allowing land expropriation in the public interest.

While the law permits expropriation without compensation under specific circumstances, the South African government insists that private property rights remain protected.

Trump's stance aligns with concerns raised by some conservative groups in the U.S. and South Africa's white minority, particularly Afrikaaner farmers, who argue that the law unfairly targets them.

They have also highlighted incidents of violence, sometimes deadly, against farmers in South Africa.

The issue is racially-charged and complex, and its discussion is often fueled by half-truths and myths spread online.

Trump's promise to cut all federal funding to South Africa follows an executive order he signed in February freezing assistance to the country in response to the Expropriation Act. He views the law as a rights violation against a white minority, the Afrikaaners.

The law enables the South African government to expropriate land from private parties if it deems it in the public interest. It also allows for expropriation without compensation, but only if negotiations for a reasonable settlement have failed.

The South African government has defended the legislation, stating that it primarily targets unused land and does not permit arbitrary seizures.

"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 government said in January.

Ramaphosa slammed a visit to the White House in late February by a lobby group for the country's Afrikaaner community. A small delegation of leaders from AfriForum and its affiliates visited Washington to meet with White House officials after Trump's order.

"That is not a nation-building process of running around the world to try and have your problems solved, you are just sowing divisions," Ramaphosa, who has said he is open to working with Trump on a deal, told reporters.

The Democratic Alliance, an opposition bloc in South Africa, said of the law in February: "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."

President Ramaphosa said in February: "We should stop running to other countries; we should discuss our own problems here and find solutions. That in many ways confirms our sovereignty."

AfriForum CEO Kallie Kriel, who was part of the delegation to the White House, said 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."

ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula said, according to news24: "I don't want my president to sit in that Oval Office. I've seen what he did to that president of Ukraine. But Ramaphosa must go to America if he is invited; if he feels that he needs to go, he must go; he serves the whole of South Africa."

The United States' funding freeze on South Africa is expected to impact various aid programs, though details remain unclear.

Trump's proposal to grant expedited citizenship to South African farmers would require legislative approval or executive action, which may soon follow, more likely the latter.

The unfolding situation will further strain U.S.-South Africa relations.