President Donald Trump has temporarily cut off U.S. funding to South Africa while his administration investigates the nation’s new land expropriation law.
The law seeks to boot white farmers from their land in South Africa.
Land expropriation has led to murder, rape, and theft.
Trump posted about his plans on Truth Social Sunday night, saying:
“South Africa is confiscating land, and treating certain classes of people VERY BADLY.
“It is a bad situation that the Radical Left Media doesn’t want to so much as mention.
“A massive Human Rights VIOLATION, at a minimum, is happening for all to see.
“The United States won’t stand for it, we will act.
“Also, I will be cutting off all future funding to South Africa until a full investigation of this situation has been completed!”
On top of all the good Trump is doing in America, if he can stop South Africa from becoming Zimbabwe then they should build statues of him there in every village. pic.twitter.com/StzbTJ8T1c
— Michael Cassidy ✝️ 🇺🇸 (@MichaelCassidy) February 3, 2025
Speaking to reporters on Sunday evening, Trump said:
“Terrible things are happening in South Africa.
“They’re confiscating land, and actually they’re doing things that are perhaps far worse than that.”
WATCH:
I love that President Trump is now making it a mission to help the white South Africans who have been oppressed by the ruling party.
"Terrible things are happening in South Africa … they're confiscating land, and actually they're doing things that are perhaps far worse than… pic.twitter.com/U0JO3ZOCVz
— George (@BehizyTweets) February 3, 2025
South Africa receives between $272 and $440 million from the U.S., depending on the source consulted.
Various trade deals with the U.S. could be impacted by the cut-off of aid.
The recently passed law has been compared to one in Zimbabwe that led to the confiscation of white farmers’ land and subsequently, mass starvation in the country.
It’s understandable that the country’s black leaders would want to see the law implemented to make farming opportunities more available to all races.
However, the reality of how the legislation is likely to play out may not be positive overall.
In many cases, farmers whose families have owned their land for hundreds of years, are being booted from their property, often being murdered in the process.
In Zimbabwe, the black farmers who took over the expropriated land had little skill with farming, and production plummeted.
The issue led to widespread food shortages.
The same thing is likely to happen in South Africa as the farmland is confiscated from lifelong farmers.
However, there is little interest from black South Africans to take over the farms.
Furthermore, the opposition party is in charge of implementing the new law, so it will probably not happen much anyway.
The attention the law is garnering may push for faster implementation, however.
Trump appears to be attempting to get ahead of the law before it becomes a bigger issue.
If the conflict between parties comes to a head, it could even shatter the unity government currently in power.
The expropriation of land has been on Trump’s radar since 2018.
At the time, a number of white farmers were murdered in a rural crime wave in the country.
South Africa has not been much of an ally to the U.S. in recent years.
It has cozied up to Russia and China and has sided with Hamas against Israel.