Trump Rips Critics Of South African Refugee Policy: ‘It’s A Terrible Thing That’s Taking Place’

The Trump administration on Monday defended its decision to offer refugee status to dozens of white Afrikaners who said they were persecuted in South Africa.

President Donald Trump in a press briefing at the White House defended welcoming 49 Afrikaners who arrived on a U.S.-chartered flight from South Africa on Monday. Trump told reporters that white Afrikaners are “being killed” in a “genocide.”

“They’re being killed, and we don’t want to see people be killed,” Trump said. “It’s a terrible thing that’s taking place. Farmers are being killed. They happen to be white, but whether they’re white or black makes no difference to me. But white farmers are being brutally killed and their land is being confiscated in South Africa, and the newspapers and the television media doesn’t even talk about it.”

The president mentioned that the United States may choose to skip the upcoming G20 summit to be held in Johannesburg, South Africa, in November unless the South African government takes steps to stop the persecution.

The refugee policy sparked questions of race, since the persecuted Afrikaners are white and targeted because of their race.

“I don’t care who they are. I don’t care about their race, their color. I don’t care about their height, their weight. I don’t care about anything,” Trump said. “I just know that what’s happening is terrible. I have people that live in South Africa. They say it’s a terrible situation taking place, so we’ve essentially extended citizenship to those people to escape from that violence and come here.”

President Trump on giving refugee status to South Africans: "It's a genocide. White Farmers are being brutally killed and their land is being confiscated. And the media doesn't even talk about it. If it were the other way around, that would be the only story they talk about." pic.twitter.com/YMP2QhYgzt

— TheBlaze (@theblaze) May 12, 2025

Secretary of State Marco Rubio echoed Trump’s comments in a post on X: “​​The South African government has treated these people terribly — threatening to steal their private land and subjected them to vile racial discrimination. The Trump Administration is proud to offer them refuge in our great country.”

The South African government has denied that white farmers are being persecuted.

“They can’t provide any proof of any persecution because there’s not any,” said Ronald Lamola, the country’s international relations and cooperation minister, according to The Washington Post. “There is not any form of persecution to white South Africans.”

The U.S. president suspended aid to South Africa in February. In the executive order directing the action, Trump accused the South African government of “fueling” violence against white landowners and legislating “to seize ethnic minority Afrikaners’ agricultural property without compensation.”

Trump ally Elon Musk, who was born in South Africa, has said that his former home has “openly racist ownership laws.”