President Donald Trump slammed establishment media outlets on Monday for failing to report on what he called a genocide targeting white farmers in South Africa. Speaking during an executive order signing in the Roosevelt Room before departing for the Middle East, Trump condemned what he described as a brutal campaign of violence and land confiscation being carried out against Afrikaner farmers — a situation he says has been ignored by the mainstream press due to racial and political bias.
“It’s a genocide that’s taking place that you people don’t want to write about, but it’s a terrible thing that’s taking place, and farmers are being killed,” Trump said, directly addressing the reporters in the room. “They happen to be white, but whether they’re white or black makes no difference to me.”
Trump criticized the American media for selectively covering international human rights abuses, implying that the racial identity of the victims affects coverage decisions. “If it were the other way around, they’d talk about it,” Trump said. “That would be the only story they’d talk about.”
The comments were made as the administration formally began welcoming a group of South African refugees to the United States. According to the State Department, the individuals are fleeing racial persecution, threats of violence, and state-backed efforts to expropriate farmland without compensation — part of a broader land reform push by the South African government.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio backed Trump’s statement on social media, writing on X, “As [Trump] assured, Afrikaners fleeing persecution are welcome in the United States.” Rubio continued, “The South African government has treated these people terribly — threatening to steal their private land and subjecting them to vile racial discrimination.”
Deputy Secretary of State Chris Landau, who greeted incoming refugees at Dulles Airport, pointed to explicit threats made by high-profile South African politicians. “These people have been living under a shadow of violence and terror for some time now,” Landau told reporters, citing the chant “Kill the boer, kill the Afrikaner” — a slogan repeated at rallies and widely recognized as incitement.
Breitbart News reporter Olivia Rondeau, who was at Dulles for the refugees’ arrival, asked Landau what had prompted the Trump administration to act. “The threat of expropriation without compensation, combined with inflammatory rhetoric from South African officials, made the situation impossible to ignore,” Landau explained.
Despite official denials from the South African government, international watchdogs have documented rising violence against rural farmers and an increase in politically charged rhetoric that has sparked global concern. Trump’s decision to highlight the crisis places the U.S. at odds with Pretoria and puts renewed focus on racial dynamics and double standards within international human rights policy.
“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,” Trump said. “I just know that what’s happening is terrible.”
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