President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Friday to freeze U.S. assistance to South Africa, citing a controversial land expropriation law that the White House claims discriminates against the country’s white minority.
The White House defended the decision, stating, “As long as South Africa continues to support bad actors on the world stage and allows violent attacks on innocent disfavored minority farmers, the United States will stop aid and assistance to the country.”
The administration also announced plans to create a program to resettle white South African farmers and their families as refugees.
The law at the center of the dispute, the Expropriation Act, was signed by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa last month. It grants the government authority to seize land in cases where it is underutilized or where redistribution serves the public interest.
The law is intended to address historical injustices from the apartheid era, during which Black South Africans were forcibly removed from their land. However, the White House condemned the policy, saying it “blatantly discriminates against ethnic minority Afrikaners.”
Elon Musk, a close Trump ally and head of the newly created Department of Government Efficiency, has drawn attention to the law in recent social media posts, warning that it threatens South Africa’s white minority.
The executive order also cites South Africa’s role in bringing genocide accusations against Israel before the International Court of Justice as a contributing factor to the aid freeze.
The move aligns with Trump’s broader efforts to cut foreign aid, as part of what he calls an “America First” approach to U.S. foreign policy.
