The Trump administration has officially welcomed the first group of white South African refugees into the United States. Yes, you heard that right—while thousands of asylum seekers from war-torn regions are turned away, 59 Afrikaners have been granted refuge on the grounds of alleged racial discrimination.
South Africa’s history is complex. The Afrikaners are descendants of Dutch settlers who once ruled South Africa under apartheid, a system that brutally oppressed the Black majority.
President Donald Trump and his South African-born ally Elon Musk have been vocal about what they call “white genocide,” a claim widely dismissed by experts.
Trump told reporters at the White House that “it’s a genocide that’s taking place,” and Afrikaners were being killed. Trump said he was not favoring Afrikaners because they are white, adding that their race “makes no difference to me.”
The South African government maintains there is no evidence of persecution and that claims of a “white genocide” in the country.
President of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa has dismissed Trump’s claims as “not true,” stating that South Africa has never driven out its white population. Meanwhile, Trump has threatened to skip an upcoming G20 summit in South Africa unless the “situation is taken care of.”
Critics argue that Trump’s decision is politically motivated, a convenient way to stoke racial tensions while ignoring the plight of refugees from actual conflict zones. The Episcopal Church has even announced it will no longer work with the federal government on refugee resettlement, citing preferential treatment after it was asked to help settle the Afrikaners.
