Trump to South Africa: No More Money for You Unless You Stop Doing 'Terrible Things'
Donald Trump spent a lot of the first day of his administration issuing executive orders that dealt the getting rid of DEI in the government, improving education, ordering all federal employees working remotely to get back to work, releasing the JFK and MLK assassination files, and so much more.
If you think that wasn’t enough to accomplish in the almost two weeks since he was inaugurated, he’s also been making waves on the international scene—big waves. He got Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro to take back his citizens who are here in the U.S. illegally, he just got the Panamanian president to agree to reduce Chinese influence over the Canal, and he imposed large tariffs on Canada and Mexico. Whew.
But he wasn’t done, and on Sunday, he announced that he would be pulling any funding for South Africa because he believes the government is unlawfully confiscating land from its own citizens. He took to Truth Social to announce his intentions:
The president also addressed the situation from the tarmac at Joint Base Andrews as he returned to the White House from Palm Beach, Florida, saying the Rainbow Nation's leadership is doing “terrible things”:
Terrible things are happening in South Africa. The leadership is doing some terrible things, horrible things, so that's under investigation right now. We’ll make a determination, and until such time as we find out what's South Africa's doing... They're taking away land, they're confiscating land, and actually, they're doing things that are perhaps far worse than that.
Watch:
The president is reacting to a new South African law that enables the government to take people’s property:
Trump’s comments come less than two weeks after South African President Cyril Ramaphosa signed a new law making it easier for the state to expropriate land, subject to equitable compensation paid.
The African National Congress, the largest political party in South Africa, has pushed to make it easier for the state to take land in an effort to address racially skewed land-ownership patterns dating back to colonial and White-minority rule.
The South African rand slid nearly 2% against the dollar in early Asia trading on Trump’s comments.
The South African president said earlier in January that he was “not worried” about how his relationship with the American president would play out.
Ramaphosa said he spoke to Trump after his U.S. election victory and looked forward to working with his administration.
"I'm not worried about our relations. I spoke to him soon after he was elected, congratulated him, and we both said we are looking forward to continued dealings and engagements," he told reporters on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland.
Sounds like he should be worried now.
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