Trump Invites South African Farmers to US

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!”

Newsweek has emailed the South African embassy in the U.S. for comment.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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