{"id":1532,"date":"2025-07-24T15:21:18","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T13:21:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analihpd.hr\/?p=1532"},"modified":"2025-07-25T11:09:03","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T09:09:03","slug":"trump-i-uspon-rasistickog-internacionalizma-pogled-iz-juznoafricke-republike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analihpd.hr\/en\/trump-i-uspon-rasistickog-internacionalizma-pogled-iz-juznoafricke-republike\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump and the Rise of Racist Internationalism: A view from South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

I spent the first three months of my retirement from formal higher education in South Africa, a period that coincided with the first three months of the second mandate of Donald J. Trump as President of the United States. Even in the context of a flurry of policy pronouncements, and clear signals that this was not going to be \u201cbusiness as usual\u201d, I did not expect the early days of Trump 2.0 to be so focused on South Africa. The early announcement of cutting all US support to South Africa was, of course, linked to the more general decimation of the US development aid budget, uncertainty over the renewal of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Office of the United States Trade Representative 2025), and also a kind of retribution for the South African government\u2019s bringing of a genocide case to the International Court of Justice regarding Israel\u2019s actions in Gaza. At the same time, offering asylum to white Afrikaners, supposedly under threat from land confiscation, described in a social media post by Trump as \u201ca massive Human Rights VIOLATION\u201d (Trump 2025, capitals in original), appeared both surprising and, certainly, in need of explanation.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Understanding the Reaction to the Expropriation Act<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The indictment of the South African government \u201ctreating certain classes of people VERY BADLY\u201d (Trump 2025, capitals in original), and the offer of asylum, was in direct response to the 2024 Expropriation Act (law 13-2024) signed by President Cyril Ramaphosa on 23 January 2025 (Republic of South Africa 2025). The Law replaced a 1975 apartheid-era law and was the culmination of decades of struggle around questions of land reform. Despite its title, it decreed that expropriation could be used only as a last resort, in the public interest, with compensation to be decided on a fair basis, and subject to judicial challenge and review. The law was intended to free up land that had, to all intents and purposes, been abandoned by any private owner, regardless of skin colour, to be repurposed for infrastructure projects, for the development of public services including housing, or for environmental protection. It can hardly be said to have been hastily introduced, since the apartheid regime was finally dismantled in 1994, nor was it ever intended or likely to lead to immediate repossession on a massive scale.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Why the great interest in this by the Trump regime? The influence of Elon Musk, at least before his very public falling out with Trump, should not be understated. Musk, born in Pretoria in 1971, with a Canadian grandfather who had moved to South Africa precisely because he found its racist apartheid system so attractive, spent his formative years in privileged white environments in South Africa, leaving in 1989 as the crisis of the apartheid regime reached its height. Musk, ironically, has long propagated a view of post-apartheid South Africa as \u201copenly racist\u201d, even suggesting that the killings of white farmers amounted to genocide (Savage 2025). His complaints that South Africa\u2019s laws on telecommunications requiring that 30 percent of all equity must belong to Black-owned businesses has prevented him from selling his Starlink network to the country need to be treated with scepticism, not least because he has, apparently, never applied for an operating permit (Ngcobo 2025).<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

At least as important have been the long-term efforts of an Afrikaner white-supremacist group AfriForum which began lobbying amongst conservative groups in the United States in 2017, with Trump buying in to right-wing conspiracy theories during the group\u2019s visit in 2018, claiming that white farmers are subject to Government-led campaigns of violence (Mbembe and Gilmore 2025). In the wake of the passing of the Expropriation Act, AfriForum pledged to combine legal challenges within South Africa with a \u201ctargeted campaign\u201d focused on \u201cinternational players\u201d, particularly the Trump regime and its supporters (Thamm 2025). In an interview, AfriForum\u2019s CEO Kallie Kriel suggested that the group\u2019s main concern was not so much land expropriation as land grabbing, while still comparing the South African law with similar laws passed in Zimbabwe and Venezuela. Hence, whilst undermining some of the basis for Trump\u2019s comments, he claimed that Trump was also referring to problems in education policies towards Afrikaners (Haffajee 2025).<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Seeking and Getting Asylum<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

By mid-March 2025 over 67,000 white South Africans had expressed interest in being resettled by registering with the South African Chamber of Commerce in the United States which handed the list to the United States Embassy in Pretoria. Most were said to be between 25 and 45 years of age and with two or three dependents (Jones and Simelane 2025). Although some claimed discrimination it was clear, as with one man interviewed on the BBC World Service, that many were simply looking for new opportunities to improve their lives and those of their families. In the end, some 8,000 actual requests were received, and the United States identified some one hundred who could potentially be approved.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The first 59 Afrikaners granted refugee status arrived in the United States on 12 May 2025 being welcomed at Dulles International Airport by the deputy secretary of state Christopher Landau and deputy secretary of homeland security, Troy Edgar. Landau referred in a press conference to \u201charrowing stories of violence \u2026 that was not redressed by the authorities\u201d and referred to the programme as demonstrating \u201cthat the United States rejects the egregious persecution of people on the basis of race in South Africa.\u201d He mentioned \u201cthe importance of assimilation\u201d, a synonym for whiteness, as a key factor to be taken into consideration when deciding on refugee claims (O'Regan 2025).<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Politics as Spectacle: Ramaphosa in the White House <\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Surpassing even the ill-fated visit of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to the White House on 28 February 2025, the visit of Cyril Ramophosa on 21 May 2025 was a macabre demonstration of Trump\u2019s love of political theatre and, indeed, his preference for fake news over evidence. Ramaphosa had come to seek to repair the relationship with the Trump regime, following the expulsion of veteran anti-apartheid activist Ebrahim Rasool as South African Ambassador to the USA as a result of his comments in a webinar on 14 March 2025 that Trump was mobilising supremacism and projecting white victimhood (Mistra 2025). Ramaphosa sought to play on Trump\u2019s love of golf with white golfers Ernie Els and Retief Goosen as part of the delegation, as well as billionaire white business leader Johann Rupert, a noted critic of the ANC but instrumental in setting up the meeting, and white Minister of Agriculture John Steinhuisen, leader of the ANC\u2019s coalition partner, the neoliberal Democratic Alliance. The US side included Vice President J.D. Vance, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, Elon Musk and others.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

What began with pleasantries and a discussion on trade quickly became an ambush when, in response to a reporter\u2019s question about claims of white genocide, Trump called for the lights to be dimmed and played a video montage including clips of two opposition politicians, former President Jacob Zuma and Julius Malema singing the apartheid-era song \u201cKill the Boer.\u201d Ramaphosa pointed out calmly that their views did not represent Government policy. Even more extraordinary was footage of what Trump described as \u201cburial sites\u201d of over 1,000 farmers, marked by white crosses. When Ramaphosa asked if Trump knew where this was, as he had never seen this footage before, Trump first replied \u201cNo\u201d before adding \u201cI mean, it\u2019s in South Africa, Mr. President\u201d (Singju Post 2025). In fact, the footage was of a protest, held on 5 September 2020, following the murder of two white farmers with the crosses removed soon afterwards (Thom and Kaufman 2025). Whilst Ramaphosa was widely praised for his calmness in the face of the ambush and, indeed, described the meeting, overall, as positive, the Trump regime doubled down on their false claims, issuing a statement headed \u201cPresident Trump is Right About What\u2019s Happening in South Africa\u201d (The White House 2025) featuring a mixture of sensationalist claims by right-wing media and statements from more mainstream media taken out of context.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Trump and the Racist International<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The entire episode should not be taken lightly as merely an example of Trump\u2019s idiosyncratic ideological agenda, precisely because it serves to legitimate a supposedly more \u201cmoderate\u201d racism spreading across the West, as in UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer\u2019s statement, echoing the racism of Enoch Powell from the 1970s, of the UK as at risk of becoming \u201can island of strangers\u201d due to open borders. It also removes any doubts, if they still existed, that Trump\u2019s MAGA agenda would see a focus primarily if not exclusively on internal affairs and significantly less engagement in international relations. Of course, the support by Trump, those close to him, and the broader movement, for Germany\u2019s neo-Nazi AfD, for the extreme right-wing Italian Government led by Giorgia Meloni, and recent threats of retribution against Brazilian President Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva in terms of punitive tariffs unless the \u201cwitch hunt\u201d against Trump\u2019s close ally Jair Bolsonaro is ended, all point to Trump\u2019s leadership of a renewed Racist or Fascist International. This, then, is part and parcel of the regime\u2019s broader racism, to be found in its dismantling of DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) programmes at home, as well as its border control policies and ICE detentions of foreign students, all of which appear to be based on the maxim \u201cthe cruelty is the point\u201d (Serwer 2021).<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

As Jeff Maskovsky and Sophie Bjork-James insightfully suggested during Trump\u2019s first term in office, the regime\u2019s combination of authoritarian neoliberalism and right-wing nationalism is expressed in racialized and patriarchal forms and meant to be an inspiration to movements across the world (Maskovsky and Bjork-James 2020). As Maskovsky argues, the construction of racialized subjects and the prioritization of white resentment, are absolutely central to Trump\u2019s political discourse and project (Maskovsky 2020). This applies equally abroad as at home, hence the perverse indictment, in the context of the struggle against apartheid, of the current South African leadership as racist against white people. As Bjork-James suggests, Trump\u2019s project is a racial one seeking to construct white people all over the world as a group with common interests, uniting white nationalist and white evangelical currents within the United States with broader neo-fascist projects internationally (Bjork-James 2020).[i]<\/a> Above all, it is one in which the apparatus of government, constructed as \u201cthe swamp\u201d or \u201cthe deep state\u201d, needs to be dismantled and re-assembled through the social movements which will continue to have influence long after the Trump 2.0 regime has become a topic for historians.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Meanwhile - South African Realities<\/strong><\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

More than thirty years after the dismantling of apartheid, and despite a Constitution derived from the ANC Charter, guaranteeing social rights and, unusually in a global context, a Constitutional Court not afraid to make the Government accountable in this regard, South Africa remains a highly unequal and visibly divided society. Indeed, recent data suggest that as measured by the Gini coefficient which stands at 0.67, South Africa is the most unequal country on Earth, largely driven by high rates of unemployment, with poverty rates high despite work in the unregulated, informal, sector. Inequalities in wealth are even higher with some 3,500 individuals, 0.01 percent of the entire population, owning about 15 percent of the wealth (Valodia 2023). Formal measures to outlaw racial discrimination have created a small Black elite and a larger, though still relatively small, Black middle class, mostly living, alongside their white counterparts, in gated communities guarded by private security companies.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

South Africa is a country with high levels of recorded crime. The murder rate stands at 45 per 100,000 in 2023-2024, the second highest of countries that publish data (Lamb 2025), alongside low rates of detection and prosecution. At the same time, rates of farm murders remain low in comparison. Even AfriForum figures suggest 49 murders on farms, not all of white people, making up 0.2 percent of all murders in 2023-2024. The motive for attacks on farms is nearly always robbery but, even here, AfriForum data suggest the 296 recorded farm attacks constituted just 0.7 percent of all recorded robberies in the same period (Newman 2025, AfriForum 2023). It is extremely difficult to produce accurate statistics on land ownership given that a great deal of land is owned by trusts and companies. A 2017 land audit found that only 30 percent of private rural land was individually owned in 2017, with 72 percent of this owned by white people, 15 percent by so called \u201ccoloured\u201d people, 5 percent by \u201cIndians\u201d and only 4 percent by \u201cAfricans\u201d (Walker 2025). As the ANC itself has largely turned its back on progressive politics and embraced neoliberalism, belatedly launching inquiries into state capture largely confined to those who have left the party, the significance that it is white Afrikaner farmers who have been selected by Trump as the real victims of the post-apartheid era should not be underestimated. Trump\u2019s punishment of South Africa impacts both its government and its people negatively whilst, ironically, pushing the government towards solidarity with the rest of Africa, with the Global South, with the BRICS+ grouping and, in particular, with China, Trump\u2019s main enemy.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

References<\/strong><\/p>\r\nAfriForum. 2023. \u201cFarm Attacks and Murders in South Africa\u201d AfriForum. https:\/\/www.artikels.afriforum.co.za\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Farm-attacks-and-murders-in-South-Africa-2023.pdf<\/a> (pristupljeno: 19. srpnja 2025).

\r\nBjork-James, S. 2020. \u201cAmericanism, Trump and Uniting the White Right.\u201d U: J. Maskovsky and S. Bjork-James (ur.), Beyond Populism: Angry Politics and the Twilight of Neoliberalism<\/i>. Morgantown: West Virginia University Press.

\r\nHaffajee, F. (2025). AfriForum's Kallie Kreel \u2013 there are land grabs in SA, not major land confiscations. Daily Maverick<\/i>. 5. velja\u010de 2025. https:\/\/www.dailymaverick.co.za\/article\/2025-02-05-afriforums-kallie-kriel-there-are-land-grabs-in-sa-not-major-land-confiscations\/<\/a> (pristupljeno: 18. srpnja 2025).

\r\nJones, M. and Simelane, N. (2025). Almost 70,000 South Africans interested in US asylum. BBC<\/i>. 19. o\u017eujka 2025. https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/cjevg2vlwk4o<\/a> (pristupljeno: 19. srpnja 2025).

\r\nJu\u017enoafri\u010dka Republika (2025). Expropriation Act<\/i>. Government Gazette<\/i>, 715 (51964). https:\/\/www.parliament.gov.za\/storage\/app\/media\/Acts\/2024\/Act_13_of_2024_Expropriation_Act_2024.pdf<\/a> (pristupljeno: 18. srpnja 2025).

\r\nLamb, G. (2025). Violent crime in South Africa happens mostly in a few hotspots: police resources should focus there \u2013 criminologist. The Conversation<\/i>. 5. velja\u010de 2025. https:\/\/theconversation.com\/violent-crime-in-south-africa-happens-mostly-in-a-few-hotspots-police-resources-should-focus-there-criminologist-248233<\/a> (pristupljeno: 22. srpnja 2025).

\r\nMaskovsky, J. and Bjork-James, S. (2020). Introduction. U: J. Maskovsky and S. Bjork-James (ur.), Beyond Populism: Angry Politics and the Twilight of Neoliberalism<\/i>. Morgantown: West Virginia University Press.

\r\nMaskovsky, J. (2020). Other People's Race Problem: Trumpism and the Collapse of the Liberal Racial Consensus in the United States. U: J. Maskovsky and S. Bjork-James (ur.), Beyond Populism: Angry Politics and the Twilight of Neoliberalism<\/i>. Morgantown: West Virginia University Press.

\r\nMbembe, A. and Wilson Gilmore, R. (2025). Trump's attacks on South Africa are a punishment for independence. The Guardian<\/i>. 7. o\u017eujka 2025. https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2025\/mar\/07\/trumps-attacks-on-south-africa-are-a-punishment-for-independence<\/a> (pristupljeno: 18. srpnja 2025).

\r\nMistra (Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection). (2025). Mistra Webinar: Implications of changes in US administration for South Africa and Africa. Youtube<\/i>. 14. o\u017eujka 2025. https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=J1ILz1S_AdQ<\/a> (pristupljeno: 19. srpnja 2025).

\r\nNewman, G. (2025). Violent crime and the myth of South Africa's 'white genocide'. Daily Maverick<\/i>. 26. svibnja 2025. https:\/\/www.dailymaverick.co.za\/article\/2025-05-26-violent-crime-and-the-myth-of-sas-white-genocide\/<\/a> (pristupljeno: 19. srpnja 2025).

\r\nNgcobo, K. (2025). Racially charged row between Musk and South Africa over Starlink. BBC<\/i>. 15. travnja 2025. https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/cly3d8gd8mno<\/a> (pristupljeno: 22. srpnja 2025).

\r\nO'Regan, V. (2025). 'We're sending a clear message' \u2013 US welcomes Afrikaner 'refugees' in Washington. Daily Maverick<\/i>. 12. svibnja 2025. https:\/\/www.dailymaverick.co.za\/article\/2025-05-12-were-sending-a-clear-message-us-welcomes-afrikaner-refugees-in-washington\/<\/a> (pristupljeno: 19. srpnja 2025).

\r\nSavage, R. (2025). The making of Elon Musk: How did his childhood in apartheid South Africa shape him? The Guardian<\/i>. 10. o\u017eujka 2025. https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/technology\/2025\/mar\/10\/making-of-elon-musk-childhood-apartheid-south-africa<\/a> (pristupljeno: 18. srpnja 2025).

\r\nSerwer, A. (2021). The Cruelty is the Point: The Past, Present, and Future of Trump's America<\/i>. New York City: Random House.

\r\nSingju Post. (2025). Transcript of President Trump and President Ramaphosa bilateral meeting. Singju Post<\/i>. 21. svibnja 2025. https:\/\/singjupost.com\/transcript-of-president-trump-and-president-ramaphosa-bilateral-meeting-may-21-2025\/<\/a> (pristupljeno: 19. srpnja 2025).

\r\nThamm, M. (2025). The big lie of the land \u2013 Ramaphosa politely schools 'terrible things' Trump on SA's land reform. Daily Maverick<\/i>. 3. velja\u010de 2025. https:\/\/www.dailymaverick.co.za\/article\/2025-02-03-the-big-lie-of-the-land-terrible-things-trump-on-sas-land-reform\/<\/a> (pristupljeno: 18. srpnja 2025).

\r\nThe White House. 2025. President Trump is right about what is happening in South Africa. The White House<\/i>. 21. svibnja 2025. https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/articles\/2025\/05\/president-trump-is-right-about-whats-happening-in-south-africa\/<\/a> (pristupljeno: 19. srpnja 2025).

\r\nThom, L. and Kaufman, E. (2025). Trump showed old videos, took crosses out of context in South Africa genocide claims. ABC News<\/i>. 22. svibnja 2025. https:\/\/abcnews.go.com\/US\/trump-showed-videos-crosses-context-south-africa-genocide\/story?id=122056100<\/a> (pristupljeno: 19. srpnja 2025).

\r\nTrump, D. 2025. South Africa is confiscating land, and treating certain classes of people VERY BADLY. Truth Social<\/i>. 2. velja\u010de 2025.

\r\nUred trgovinskog predstavnika Sjedinjenih Ameri\u010dkih Dr\u017eava (2025). African Growth and Opportunity Act. 22. srpnja 2025. https:\/\/ustr.gov\/issue-areas\/trade-development\/preference-programs\/african-growth-and-opportunity-act-agoa<\/a> (pristupljeno: 22. srpnja 2025).

\r\nValodia, I. (2023). South Africa can't crack the inequality curse. The Conversation<\/i>. 22. rujna 2023. https:\/\/theconversation.com\/south-africa-cant-crack-the-inequality-curse-why-and-what-can-be-done-213132<\/a> (pristupljeno: 19. srpnja 2025).

\r\nWalker, C. (2025). Land Ownership in South Africa \u2013 the facts and figures, and figuring out the facts. Daily Maverick<\/i>. 10. o\u017eujka 2025. https:\/\/www.dailymaverick.co.za\/article\/2025-03-10-land-ownership-in-sa-the-facts-and-figures\/<\/a> (pristupljeno: 18. srpnja 2025).\r\n\r\n


[i]<\/a> The book is available in an earlier form at the following link: https:\/\/cuny.manifoldapp.org\/read\/untitled-3461758b-88c6-423b-b109-2bad311801dc\/section\/04683947-6b45-4b55-9c14-9d7e8fb0cd32 (accessed: 19 July 2025).<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Uvod Prva tri mjeseca svog umirovljenja iz sustava znanosti proveo sam u Ju\u017enoafri\u010dkoj Republici. To se razdoblje poklopilo s prva tri mjeseca drugog mandata Donalda J. Trumpa kao predsjednika Sjedinjenih Ameri\u010dkih Dr\u017eava. \u010cak i u kontekstu niza politi\u010dkih izjava i jasnih signala da ovo ne\u0107e biti \u201euobi\u010dajeno poslovanje\u201c, nisam o\u010dekivao da \u0107e rani dani Trumpa […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1537,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analihpd.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analihpd.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analihpd.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analihpd.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analihpd.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1532"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/analihpd.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1532\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1544,"href":"https:\/\/analihpd.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1532\/revisions\/1544"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analihpd.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analihpd.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analihpd.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analihpd.hr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}