Relevance to the sub: Deterioration of the bilateral relations between the US and South Africa, immigration policy by the Trump administration, broader racial grievances
Marco Rubio announced on Thursday that the United States would issue additional sanctions against South Africa in the form of visa bans for "foreign nationals who enact or enable policies that promote race-based discrimination, incite violence, or enable land confiscation without compensation", in the latest episode of rising hostility against Africa's largest economy.
Since his return to the presidency, Donald Trump has enacted a series of aggressive measures against South Africa while falsely claiming that the country's government was carrying out "white genocide" – a neo-Nazi conspiracy theory – against its Afrikaner and English minorities. In May 2025, he publicly humiliated South Africa's president Cyril Ramaphosa in the Oval office over claims of white genocide, his administration has cut aid to the country, declared their ambassador to the US persona non grata, refused to attend the G20 transition ceremony in Johannesburg in 2025 and barred them from attending the 2026 G20 summit in Miami.
The Trump administration also appointed as their ambassador to South Africa Leo Brent Bozell III, an ultraconservative pro-apartheid activist who lobbied the Reagan administration to prevent sanctions on South Africa's apartheid regime, and derided Nelson Mandela as a "Communist agitator".
As the Trump administration moved to severely restrict immigration and asylum programs, they set up a special "refugee resettlement program" for White South Africans, admitting an estimated 13,000 over 18 months, although some have shared disappointment and dismay at their interactions with the US immigration system.
Marco Rubio's justification for the visa bans directly references the affirmative actions programs undertaken by democratic South Africa to correct the massive inequalities inherited from the apartheid regime, which have contributed to create and nurture a Black elite and middle-class, although the country remains extremely unequal and plagued by widespread poverty and crime. Under Donald Trump's administration, the US government has aggressively pursued the destruction of affirmative action and DEI programs, at home and abroad, notably by pressuring foreign companies operating in the US to drop their equalities programs.
Posted by RaidBrimnes
6 Comments
!ping AFRICA
https://preview.redd.it/w6ypg0mfv2qh1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f3845fac204ef468d02b43d4b6085f72fa3b0093
This article just reminded me we have had effectively like 0 refugees admitted the past 1.5 years. We’re going to have another labor shortage under the next Dem administration and everyone is going to forget when it started.
“Anti-white discrimination…White genocide”
Why does Trump force me to side with South Africa? I don’t even like the ANC, they’re corrupt af, incompetent at best and love Putin
But the ANC isn’t committing a white genocide and while there’s affirmative action in South Africa for the black majority, and personally I am generally sceptical of race based AA, it’s not “anti white” discrimination, statistically most whites are still better off than most blacks in South Africa as a legacy of apartheid
The whole thing is a joke, South Africa definitely has problems and the ANC is deeply flawed but the far right criticisms are ridiculous
Oh and this ambassador’s son also participated in the January Putsch, 2021. Like father like son
If y’all needed more proof that our government is run by actual neo-Nazis. I remember counter-protesting those fucks years ago, and this was one of their favorite stupid theories.
But accepting specifically only white “refugees” from South Africa is acceptable.