Hmm, I Wonder Why Trump Wants to Cut Off Funding to South Africa

One of the loudest elements in our current cacophony of chaos is the loud, iron-clanging sound of circles closing. The problem isn’t a lack of conspiratorial evidence; it’s that there’s so very much of it. And over the weekend there was a resounding clang derived from an unexpected, but very logical, quarter of the past. From CBS News:

In an executive order, Mr. Trump accused the South African government of discriminating against Afrikaners, an ethnic group in South Africa made up of descendants of European colonists, mostly from the Netherlands, who first arrived there in the 1600s.... Mr. Trump alleged in his order that White South Africans are now the targets of oppression by the country’s government, citing a law that U.S. conservatives like Trump adviser and billionaire Elon Musk have said allow racially motivated seizures of land owned by White South Africans. Musk was born in South Africa. South Africa’s government has strongly denied any land confiscations or racially motivated discrimination, saying the law being scrutinized targets land not being used or not serving the public interest.

Thus does white America’s conservative victimology find its waltzing partner on the veld. Which, given the president’s new favorite bestie, is less surprising than the rising of this morning’s sun. From NBC News:

“South Africa is confiscating land, and treating certain classes of people VERY BADLY,” the president said in an initial post on his social media platform Truth Social earlier this month. “Massive Human Rights VIOLATION, at a minimum, is happening for all to see.” Trump had said he would cut off all funding to South Africa, most of which goes toward its HIV/AIDS program, “until a full investigation of this situation has been completed!”

The executive order comes after a new South African land law went into effect. In focusing on South Africa, the president is echoing the views of Department of Government Efficiency head Elon Musk.... The world’s richest man and now a member of Trump’s inner circle, Musk has described his birth nation as having “racist ownership laws,” accusing its government of doing too little to stop what he has referred to as a “genocide” against white farmers.

This sounds just like the kind of foreign entanglement from which the United States should stay far, far away. Alas, it also sounds like the kind of foreign entanglement a former redlining real estate goon would dive into with both feet, especially at the behest of the richest man in the world. And to hell with all those kids with AIDS.

According to South African government data from 2022, around 7% of the population of South Africa is white. But, in a hangover from the country’s apartheid system of white minority rule that ended 30 years ago, white farmers own approximately three-quarters of South Africa’s land. In addition, South Africa’s white working population earns nearly three times the average wage of Black workers, according to 2022 World Bank figures.

A hangover? Yes, like Jim Crow was a “hangover” from slavery over here. And the white folks over there sound very much like the “redeemer” politicians in the American South. Nice to meet you, Mr. Van Der Bilbo. From The New York Times:

For decades, some members of the white Afrikaner minority have been trying to convince anyone and everyone who would listen that they are the true victims in post-apartheid South Africa. They have made claims of mass killings of their people and widespread land grabs by a Black-led government that they insist is seeking retribution for the sins of the Afrikaner-led apartheid government. Their stories have been false or greatly exaggerated, but that hasn’t stopped them from being widely amplified and repeated online.

Nothing ever does.

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