Expelled South African envoy to US calls Trump administration 'racist'

Ebrahim Rasool, the former South African ambassador to the US, has said that the Trump administration is “racist” after he was expelled from the country last week by US Secretary Marco Rubio, who called him a “race-baiting politician who hates America”.

Talking to the BBC, Rasool said, “I think it is self-evident rather than anyone needing to be called out.” Rasool’s expulsion came after he accused US President Donald Trump of “projecting white victimhood as a dog whistle.”

Rasool was given a hero’s welcome on his return to South Africa, telling cheering supporters: “It was not our choice to come home, but we come home with no regrets.”

The diplomat pointed out the administration’s focus on deporting migrants and targeting foreign students who had backed pro-Palestinian protests. He also alleged that Trump’s team was rallying “certain far-right communities.”

Meanwhile, the US government has rejected accusations of racism and said that the president has a mandate to deport thousands of migrants who have been living in the country illegally.

Ties between Washington and Pretoria have slumped since Trump cut financial aid to South Africa over what he alleges is its anti-white land policy, its genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice and other foreign policy clashes.

Egged on by his South Africa-born right-hand man Elon Musk, Trump has accused the country’s government of discriminating against its white minority and last month signed an executive order offering refugee status to Afrikaners, the ethnic minority that once ran the country’s apartheid system.

Earlier this week, Trump named a right-wing media critic as the US ambassador to South Africa. Brent Bozell, the founder of the Media Research Center will be replacing Rasool in the job.

The New York Times reported that Bozell’s son was one of almost 1,600 people convicted and sentenced for their role in the January 6, 2021 assault on the US Capitol by Trump supporters, and who was pardoned by the president when he took office this year.

With inputs from AFP