nsacpi
Expects Yuge Games
SETTLERS, South Africa—Afrikaners, white South Africans long reviled as the architects of a racist state, are now being recast by Donald Trump as the victims of one.
The U.S. president has accused South Africa’s Black-majority government of plotting to seize white farms and failing to stop “violent attacks on innocent disfavored minority farmers.” His top adviser, white South Africa-born billionaire Elon Musk, has accused some of the country’s politicians of actively promoting a “white genocide.”
Trump, who has centered his presidency on a promise to evict millions of migrants from the U.S., is clearing away obstacles so that white Afrikaners who want to emigrate enjoy a smooth path to American citizenship.
On Monday, several dozen Afrikaners arrived in the U.S. on a chartered flight that landed at Dulles International Airport outside Washington, the first group granted refugee status under Trump’s executive order. The white South Africans were welcomed by Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Troy Edgar and Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau, who said the people told him of “harrowing stories of the violence they faced in South Africa.”
In response to a reporter’s question, Landau said the president paused the broader refugee program for other groups of people because it wasn’t clear they had been carefully vetted, but that the administration could make exceptions where it was determined that it was in the interest of the U.S.
Ahead of the Afrikaners’ arrival, Trump on Monday said he was expediting their entry “because they are being killed…it’s a genocide that’s taking place.”
However, relatively few South African farmers say they want to emigrate. Typically, Afrikaners are wealthier than average, and while some murders of white farmers have grabbed headlines for their shocking violence, Black South Africans often die in equally horrific circumstances and in higher numbers in one of the world’s most violent countries. Even Afrikaner rights groups have said they’re more focused on fixing the situation in their country than leaving it. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said it is “completely false” that Afrikaners are persecuted.
“This is my country,” said Maritz Grobler, an Afrikaner who owns 1,000 acres where he farms corn, beans, cattle and sunflowers in the town of Settlers. He’s a ninth-generation South African on his father’s side and 10th generation on his mother’s. “But it’s good to know that [Trump] will back us…if shit happens.”
As the son of a white South African, it would be remiss of me not to express gratitude.
The U.S. president has accused South Africa’s Black-majority government of plotting to seize white farms and failing to stop “violent attacks on innocent disfavored minority farmers.” His top adviser, white South Africa-born billionaire Elon Musk, has accused some of the country’s politicians of actively promoting a “white genocide.”
Trump, who has centered his presidency on a promise to evict millions of migrants from the U.S., is clearing away obstacles so that white Afrikaners who want to emigrate enjoy a smooth path to American citizenship.
On Monday, several dozen Afrikaners arrived in the U.S. on a chartered flight that landed at Dulles International Airport outside Washington, the first group granted refugee status under Trump’s executive order. The white South Africans were welcomed by Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Troy Edgar and Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau, who said the people told him of “harrowing stories of the violence they faced in South Africa.”
In response to a reporter’s question, Landau said the president paused the broader refugee program for other groups of people because it wasn’t clear they had been carefully vetted, but that the administration could make exceptions where it was determined that it was in the interest of the U.S.
Ahead of the Afrikaners’ arrival, Trump on Monday said he was expediting their entry “because they are being killed…it’s a genocide that’s taking place.”
However, relatively few South African farmers say they want to emigrate. Typically, Afrikaners are wealthier than average, and while some murders of white farmers have grabbed headlines for their shocking violence, Black South Africans often die in equally horrific circumstances and in higher numbers in one of the world’s most violent countries. Even Afrikaner rights groups have said they’re more focused on fixing the situation in their country than leaving it. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said it is “completely false” that Afrikaners are persecuted.
“This is my country,” said Maritz Grobler, an Afrikaner who owns 1,000 acres where he farms corn, beans, cattle and sunflowers in the town of Settlers. He’s a ninth-generation South African on his father’s side and 10th generation on his mother’s. “But it’s good to know that [Trump] will back us…if shit happens.”
As the son of a white South African, it would be remiss of me not to express gratitude.
