US says South African ambassador ‘no longer welcome’

Ebrahim Rasool, the president’s administration, has been designated a persona non grata in the United States by the president’s administration.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared that Rasool was no longer “welcome in our great country” in a social media post on Friday.

Rubio, who uses the abbreviation “President of the United States,” wrote, “Ebrahim Rasool is a hate-mongering politician who hates America and hates POTUS.”

He is regarded as PERSONA NON GRATA because we have nothing to talk about with him.

Rubio cited Rasool as saying that Trump “mottoed a “white victimhood” and “white victimhood” as a “dog whistle” during the 2024 elections in an article by the right-wing media outlet Breitbart.

The Trump administration has recently criticized South Africa, a nation that has supported Palestinian rights and helped lead the charge against Israel, a US ally, for genocidal acts in Gaza. Rasool’s expulsion is the most recent in a line of actions.

Since Trump’s inauguration, Rasool, a veteran diplomat, has been denied what are typically routine opportunities to speak with officials at the US State Department as well as with senior Republicans, according to a report from the news outlet Semafor earlier this week.

In January, Rasool resigned from his position as South Africa’s US ambassador. He previously served during Barack Obama’s presidency from 2010 to 2015.

The African National Congress (ANC), a political party that was founded after the anti-apartheid struggle that put an end to white minority rule in that nation, governs South Africa.

However, the Trump administration and its allies, including South African-born right-wing billionaire Elon Musk, have drawn particular ire from its government.

The ANC government has accused Trump’s administration of treating its white population unfairly.

Trump has stopped providing aid to South Africa and offered expedited citizenship to white Afrikaners “escaping government-sponsored racial discrimination” in February, when the White House had almost completely closed refugee admissions for people fleeing violence and repression around the world.

The announcement was made in response to a law addressing land-use disparities that have existed since the apartheid era. Trump is accused of being misinformed about the law, which has not been used to seize any land, by the South African government.

According to Vincent Magwenya, a spokesperson for South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, the country was “not going to partake in a counterproductive megaphone diplomacy,” in reference to Trump’s propensity to post messages about South Africa on social media.

Authorities in South Africa claim that the economic legacy of apartheid, during which white South Africans enjoyed near-total control over the economy, continues to exist in terms of economic inequality between Black and white residents despite Trump’s portrayal of Afrikaners as a besieged minority.

According to a 2017 government audit, Black people only own 4% of privately held farmland, compared to 80% of the country’s population.

Only 8% of the population is made up of the white Afrikaners who own the majority of the farmland in South Africa.