Rubio boots South African ambassador from US: 'persona non grata'

Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday said South Africa's ambassador to the U.S. was no longer welcome in the country, while calling him a "race-baiting" politician who hates America and President Donald Trump after he said the commander-in-chief is leading a global White supremacist movement.

On Thursday, South African Ambassador Embrahim Rasool addressed the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection (MISTRA) in Johannesburg while explaining Trump's opposition to his country's expropriation law and its anti-Israel stances. 

He said Trump's Make America Great Again movement was a White supremacist response to demographic changes in the U.S.

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"What Donald Trump is launching is an assault on incumbency, those who are in power, by mobilizing a supremacism against the incumbency, at home, and, I think I’ve illustrated, abroad as well," he said. "So in terms of that, the supremacist assault on incumbency, we see it in the domestic politics of the USA, the MAGA movement, the Make America Great Again movement, as a response not simply to a supremacist instinct, but to very clear data that shows great demographic shifts in the USA in which the voting electorate in the USA is projected to become 48% white."

Rubio, in a post on X, blasted Rasool over his remarks. 

"South Africa's Ambassador to the United States is no longer welcome in our great country," the secretary said. "Emrahim Rasool is a race-baiting politician who hates America and hates @POTUS. We have nothing to discuss with him and so he is considered PERSONA NON GRATA."

Trump has criticized South Africa over a land expropriation law that allows the government to make land seizures without compensation. In February, Trump issued an executive order penalizing South Africa.

"In shocking disregard of its citizens' rights, the Republic of South Africa recently enacted Expropriation Act 13 of 2024, to enable the government of South Africa to seize ethnic minority Afrikaners' agricultural property without compensation," the order states. 

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"It is the policy of the United States that, as long as South Africa continues these unjust and immoral practices that harm our Nation: (a) the United States shall not provide aid or assistance to South Africa; and (b) the United States shall promote the resettlement of Afrikaner refugees escaping government-sponsored race-based discrimination, including racially discriminatory property confiscation."

The order also took aim at South Africa's position against Israel, which it has accused in the International Court of Justice of committing genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, as well as reinvigorating its relations with Iran to develop commercial, military, and nuclear arrangements.

"The United States cannot support the government of South Africa's commission of rights violations in its country or its undermining United States foreign policy, which poses national security threats to our Nation, our allies, our African partners, and our interests," the order said. 

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The South African government has claimed Whites of all backgrounds, not just Afrikaners, still own approximately 70% of South Africa’s land. The government is on record saying the Expropriation Act will only be used to take land needed for public purposes — such as for a new school — from people of any color when the owner refuses to sell, and even then there would be "fair and equitable compensation."