The United States has ejected South African Ambassador to the country, Ebrahim Rasool over accusation of hating America by criticising the administration of President Donald Trump.
In a post on X Friday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote that Rasool was “no longer welcome in our great country,” calling him a “race-baiting politician who hates America” and President Trump.
“We have nothing to discuss with him and so he is considered persona non grata,” Rubio wrote.
The New York Times reported that the expulsion was official, citing a spokesperson for the South African president.
In his social media post, Rubio included a link to an article from the far-right website Breitbart on recent remarks Rasool gave to a research institute in Johannesburg about U.S. demographics moving away from a white majority.
The article characterised Rasool’s comments as a claim that Trump is leading a “global white supremacist movement.”
Rasool spoke about a “supremacist assault on incumbency in U.S. politics,” pointing to the MAGA movement “as a response, not simply to a supremacist instinct, but to very clear data that shows great demographic shifts in the US in which the voting electorate is projected to become 48% white, and that the possibility of a majority of minorities is looming on the horizon.”
Rasool also pointed to billionaire Elon Musk’s and Vice President JD Vance’s recent overtures to far-right political movements in Europe.
Trump’s new administration has strained relations between the U.S. and South Africa.
LEADERSHIP recalls that last month, the president signed an executive order halting aid to South Africa over a new law there intended to help address post-apartheid inequality in Black land ownership.
The executive order suggested that the legislation discriminates against white landowners.
Trump also directed his administration to prioritise white South Africans’ resettlement in the U.S.
