Trump and South Africa: How White Nationalism has Become Mainstream

 Within recent weeks, the Trump administration has been admitting white Afrikaners to the United States under refugee status.  The administration claims that they have been facing discrimination at the hands of the South African government on account of their race.  The South African government has denied any discrimination of white South Africans, and does not believe they should be allowed refugee status.  This comes as a jarring break with the administration's typical rhetoric about migrants and refugees.  In fact, refugee admissions to people from other areas of the world, including active war zones, have been halted.  The Afrikaners have been given a highly questionable exception.  The admissions of white South Africans as refugees disturbingly coincides with a racist conspiracy theory, white replacement, and/or white genocide theory.  What is the true story?  Are they being persecuted?

The fringe idea that white people are being replaced or killed deliberately to pursue a new world order is not a new idea among those on the far right.  The white genocide conspiracy claims that there is a genocide masterminded by Jewish people to erase "white culture" and see increasing migration and heterogeneity in society as a threat to white civilization.  The solution, they claim, is to clamp down on migration and limit racial mixing.  Another closely related theory is called the "great replacement" theory, which posits that migration from areas in Africa and Asia present a threat to white European populations.  This theory has circulated among the far right wing in Europe for over a decade, and has since made its way to the United States.  This rhetoric was prominent among many extremist movements in the U.S., including the Unite the Right march in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017.  The Trump administration has echoed these sentiments directly in regards to the Afrikaner population.

During a recent meeting in the Oval Office with the President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, Donald Trump referred to the supposed seizing of land from white farmers in South Africa without any compensation, and used debunked evidence to claim that over one thousand white farmers had been murdered.  In fact, a picture that Trump showed as "evidence" of this genocide was a still of a YouTube video that originated in the Democratic Republic of Congo.  These actions directly correspond with white nationalist rhetoric and propaganda, which is an extraordinarily disturbing trend to see coming from the highest office of the most powerful country in the world.

The truth of the matter is, there is not a genocide of white Afrikaners, nor have white farmers been removed from their land without compensation.  Put simply, the administration is continuing its alignment with white nationalism, as well as catering to its support bases' fear of a heterogeneous society.  The United States has always been a diverse society.  Its diversity has changed over time to include people from different racial and ethnic backgrounds.  Diversity is not a threat to white America, nor has it ever been.  In order to counter this rhetoric, we have to be willing to call out racism and bigotry when it is observed, especially when it is not simply casual racism on the part of a private citizen, rather when the highest level of government is repeating racist ideas.  Racism from the halls of power is when it is at its most dangerous, and we must be ready and willing to debunk and rebuke it.

Sources:

Iqbal, Nomia. “White South Africans Arrive in US under Trump Refugee Plan.” BBC News, May 12, 2025. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/crljn5046epo.

No Author. “White Genocide- ISD.” ISD, February 8, 2023. https://www.isdglobal.org/explainers/white-genocide-conspiracy/.

Contreras, Russell. “Trump’s ‘White Genocide’ in South Africa Claims Debunked.” Axios, May 21, 2025. https://www.axios.com/2025/05/21/trump-south-african-white-genocide-claims.