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   From: flwp@in.valid   
      
   They don't even speak English.   
      
   The Road to Trump's Embrace of White South Africans   
   The Trump administration's hostile approach to South Africa was shaped by a   
   convergence of factors.   
   White South Africans at a rally outside the United States Embassy in   
   Pretoria in February. Credit... Joao Silva/The New York Times   
      
   It was May 2019 and national security officials were in the Situation Room   
   discussing Iran when President Trump abruptly changed the subject. He   
   wanted to talk about granting asylum and citizenship to white South African   
   farmers.   
   Mr. Trump had floated the idea before, claiming that the farmers were a   
   persecuted minority group being displaced from their land, according to   
   John R. Bolton, his national security adviser at the time, who was at the   
   meeting.   
   Mr. Bolton said he thought little of Mr. Trump's wish. The president had   
   embraced fringe ideas and false narratives pushed by white Afrikaner   
   activists, Mr. Bolton said.   
   "It never amounted to anything, so I just put it as typical Trump, " Mr.   
   Bolton recalled in a recent interview. "Some random person tells him   
   something and he's obsessed with it. "   
   Years later, Mr. Trump's views on white farmers in South Africa are shaping   
   U. S. foreign policy in his second term. On Monday, the first group of   
   Afrikaners, a white ethnic minority that ruled during apartheid in South   
   Africa, landed in Washington, as the Trump administration upended a refugee   
   system that had provided sanctuary for those fleeing war, famine and   
   natural disasters.   
   The administration is welcoming white South Africans after suspending the   
   program for everyone else, including other Africans who have waited in   
   refugee camps for years and were vetted and cleared, and Afghans who   
   supported the U. S. war in their country.   
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   Image   
   The first group of Afrikaners landed at Washington Dulles International   
   Airport on Monday. Credit... Saul Loeb/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images   
   The extraordinary development capped months of a diplomatic spiral between   
   the two nations.   
   In early February, Mr. Trump signed an executive order halting all foreign   
   aid to South Africa, claiming that its government had engaged in "race-   
   based discrimination. "   
   In March, his administration expelled South Africa's ambassador after he   
   criticized Mr. Trump for playing to white grievance in America and warned   
   of a "global protective movement that is beginning to envelop embattled   
   white communities. "   
   A convergence of factors has fueled the administration's hostile approach   
   to South Africa.   
   They include meetings with Afrikaner activists, a break between the two   
   countries over Israel's war in Gaza and Mr. Trump's focus on eradicating   
   diversity and inclusion programs that the administration alleges have led   
   to racism against white people.   
   His most influential advisers include hard-right conservatives executing an   
   agenda influenced by white victimhood. The officials who might have   
   rebuffed Mr. Trump's ideas have been replaced by loyalists, such as   
   Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who are willing to turn his impulses into   
   policy.   
   And a conversation with the renowned South African golfer Gary Player   
   stayed on Mr. Trump's mind.   
   When Mr. Trump raised the issue of white farmers in the Situation Room, Mr.   
   Bolton recalled that the president, while practicing his swing with Mr.   
   Player, had heard that the Afrikaners were being "driven from their land.   
   " Two other former administration officials also said Mr. Trump had heard   
   about the struggle of Afrikaners from Mr. Player.   
   Image   
   South African golfer Gary Player with Senator Lindsey Graham, after they   
   spent a day golfing with Mr. Trump in 2019. Credit... Susan   
   Walsh/Associated Press   
   In February, Mr. Player said he had "not even once" spoken to Mr. Trump   
   about U. S. policies in South Africa.   
   "I'm a big Trump fan, but I can't get involved with politics, " Mr. Player   
   said, adding, "Donald Trump's going to make the decisions about South   
   Africa. That's going to come from him. "   
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   Asked about Mr. Bolton's account last month, an adviser to Mr. Player, Dave   
   King, said the golfer did not recall the conversation with Mr. Trump. "He   
   considers all discussions that he has on the golf course as private, " Mr.   
   King said.   
   White House officials did not respond directly to questions about how Mr.   
   Trump's views on South African's plight evolved into U. S. policy. Instead,   
   they reiterated their concerns about the Afrikaners.   
   "Afrikaner refugees who arrived in the United States today shared their   
   harrowing stories of discrimination and persecution in South Africa,   
   including violent attacks, vandalism of property, death threats, racial   
   slurs against farmers, songs calling for the death of all Afrikaners,   
   affirmative action laws that prevent many from finding work and a   
   government that, at a minimum, did not respond to their requests for help,   
   " Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said in a statement on   
   Monday. "It's truly sad The New York Times is attempting to minimize the   
   suffering of this long-persecuted minority group. "   
   Powerful American Allies   
   Image   
   Celebrating the inauguration of President Cyril Ramaphosa in Pretoria last   
   June. Credit... Joao Silva/The New York Times   
   To Mr. Trump, South Africa is a cautionary tale for the United States.   
   In the 1990s, when one of his advisers mentioned a news item projecting   
   that nonwhite people could become the majority in the United States, Mr.   
   Trump shot back that there would be a revolution should that happen. "This   
   isn't going to become South Africa, " he said, according to a book about   
   the president, "Confidence Man, " by Maggie Haberman, a New York Times   
   reporter.   
   Years later, in August 2018, one of Mr. Trump's favorite newscasters   
   crystallized his views of South Africa. Tucker Carlson, a Fox News host at   
   the time, said that South Africa's president had begun "seizing land from   
   his own citizens" under a new law that Mr. Carlson called "the definition   
   of racism. "   
   "Racism is what our elites say they hate most — Donald Trump is a racist   
   they say — but they pay no attention to this at all, " Mr. Carlson said.   
   Within hours of the newscast, Mr. Trump had fired off a tweet claiming that   
   there was "large-scale killing" of white farmers in South Africa, and that   
   he had directed the State Department to "closely study the South Africa   
   land and farm seizures and expropriations. "   
      
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