Amidst all the sturm und drang of Donald J. Trump strutting on the Arab Gulf stage like a colossus - stopping wars, making deals for himself and his billionaire buddies, selling meme coins, auctioning access to the Presidency, solving the tariff crises that he had initiated, dumping Netanyahu, graciously accepting personal 400 million dollar gifts, real estate deals, gutting the rule of law, and expelling legal and undocumented immigrants - 59 White Afrikaners from South Africa were brought to America by a chartered jet as refugees. Meanwhile back home there are protests everyday somewhere while fired scientists and academics are being courted throughout the world. Three internationally known experts on fascism Timothy Snyder, Marci Shore and James Robinson announced “We have written on fascism and are leaving”.
There is much to unpack here as to how on earth this oddity could have occurred. Why South Arica? Who are the Afrikaners? Why did Trump who is dragging people off the streets ending the legal stay of 500 000 South American and over 100, 000 Afghani refugees and seriously considering ending the parole stay of a quarter million Ukrainians, favor this group for DEI, (diversity, equity and inclusion)? The latter being a concept that Trump and the Republicans ran against in 2024 while Elon Musk was sent to root out in every corner of the government bureaucracy, axing grants, welfare programs and US aid to the world poor. Musk’s official job was head of the Department of Government Efficiency - DOGE.
A good start is to try and explain to the uninitiated what DEI means in the American context.
DEI (DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION)
DEI has evolved into a vast, cultural, educational and economic complex. It is an attempt to document and correct historical inequities and discrimination. The whole exercise being ostensibly at the expense, of the white rural population and the white workers who were relegated from the middle class by the outsourcing of American manufacturing jobs. Every minority or oppressed group was included from the LGBT and women, to notably those of color, particularly the African Americans. Politically great exception was taken to the resources afforded to brown immigrants and refugees from “shit hole” countries.
The proponents of this DEI undertaking were the “liberal elites” from the East and West coast and their Universities. DEI became an objective of Democratic government and business who attempted to further the cause of minorities generally. The issue became central to the populism of Trumpism which claimed to be the party of the neglected forgotten workers and rural inhabitants.
What had started off by John F. Kennedy in 1963 under the term “affirmative action” in an attempt to redress past discrimination and increase opportunity for those victimized had grown extensively and now was subject to the most bizarre attacks and distortions such as “why should whites be made to feel guilty or uncomfortable about what happened in the past” and “the slaves were taught skills which they could use when freed”. If an accident occurred in governmental service the immediate argument was that this inefficiency or incompetence was as a result of DEI.
In January 2025 Donald J. Trump put an end to all governmental DEI programs with an Executive Order. They were to be shut down within 2 days. All members employed were to be put on administrative leave and eventually laid off. The 47th President claimed that “DEI efforts were illegal and immoral discriminatory programs and a public waste”. This included those involved in immigration and those immigrants who were already here as a result he believed under DEI philosophy.
So now we get to why in heavens name did he make his own DEI choice, the South African Afrikaners?
WHY THE SOUTH AFRICAN AFRIKANERS?
Allowing white South African Afrikaners special status was floated in the Trump first presidency. This idea followed a blast from Tucker Carlson who was then numero uno in Fox News. Tucker has fallen on tough times since then as he was axed by Rupert Murdoch following Fox’s nearly a billion dollars settlement in litigation by a company that Fox had alleged crooked their voting machines to give Biden the presidency in 2020. He has slipped off the radar and is not much of an influencer at the moment following a gushing interview with Vladimir Putin and a piece where he was shown extolling Russia while shopping in a wondrous Super Market there.
Trump 2.0 surrounded himself with the white South African billionaires, the “Paypal Mafia”, including Elon Musk, Peter Thiel and Dave Saks. Elon of course is the DOGE king who has wrecked havoc with America’s governmental institutions with his “chainsaw”. The Tesla founder has used the same criticism that Trump has leveled against the South African black government that they are “racist” and were “genocidal against white farmers”. Incidentally the design of the Tesla Cybertruck is reminiscent of the Caspers used by the apartheid police which were a symbol of oppression. Just in case that makes Musk feel uncomfortable let him add the fact that he backed the far right party in the Germany election. Trump himself has some hairy incidents including the forced withdrawal of his recent nominee to be Attorney General of Columbia who championed a Nazi supporter who was a January 6 rioter,
Trump signed an Executive Order halting all aid to South Africa echoing Musk’s claims and maintaining that the government was guilty of “massive Human Rights VIOLATION”. He threw the South African Ambassador out and the war of words is ongoing.
So who better to import than these White Afrikaners who in the words of the Deputy Secretary of State “did not pose any threat to national security and that they were easily assimilated into the country”. The 60 odd that arrived in North Virginia had been vetted and it has been reported that about 40 didn’t meet the criteria whatever they were. All in all 8,000 of this category have been said to have made “enquiries”.
But who are these people?
WHO ARE THE WHITE AFRIKANERS?
At the outset it be made crystal clear that labelling all Afrikaners as espousing a certain ideology is about as accurate as claiming everyone from the Southern States vote Republican. But there is a history and this demographic was chosen by Musk et al and invited by Trump for a reason.
South Africa has a dark history and much like America for the first few hundred years of their existence the discussion was between the white groups - those of predominantly Dutch descent - the Afrikaners and those of British descent - the English. Unlike in America the English were on the British side against the Afrikaner war for independence - the Boer War. The subsequent peace never negated the majority of Afrikaners to accept the result. As the mid twentieth century loomed the English side had a more but limited openness to black rights.
The Afrikaner Nationalist Party surprisingly won the post WW11 election and heralded in constitutional apartheid. Apartheid was defined in all its brutality, cruelty, oppression and abrogation of the rule of law from the late 1950’s to about 1980 under the premierships of HF Verwoerd and BJ Vorster who held the reins for two decades. Both had sided with the Nazis in WW11.
Verwoerd an ideologue who defined what became recognized as apartheid sprung to prominence by organizing a pre war protest march against the immigration of jews from Europe. He subsequently was successfully sued as editor of “Die Vaderland” for Nazi propaganda. From 1948 he was the power behind the scenes and was appointed Prime Minister in 1958. His strongman henchman as Minister of Justice was Vorster who succeeded him after he was assassinated in 1966. The latter was an open supporter of the Nazis and was interned as a result. The white political opposition to the Nationalist party gradually became more and more involved in expanding the rights of all peoples
THE NEW SOUTH AFRICA
Fast forward to 1990 when an Afrikaner Willem De Klerk brokered a new South Africa partnering the icon Nelson Mandela whom he released from prison. He led a referendum among whites to change the Constitution. Following Mandela and his successor, Jacob Zuma became premier and when challenged as to his open corruption which permeated the governing ANC he stated he never was a member of the party to “become poor”. His nominee for succession was narrowly beaten by Cyril Ramaphosa who hasn’t helped South Africa’s cause with America by siding with Iran and receiving a massive injection of cash from the latter to charge Israel with genocide at The Hague. He has earned the ire of South African Jews by threatening anyone who immigrated to Israel and was in the military returning to South Africa for any reason to be subject to arrest. Also his relationships with Russia and China have not endeared him to the democracies.
So where does leave the 60 or so white Afrikaner refugees?
THE WHITE AFRIKANER REFUGEES
At the very least those that qualify for American refugee status have to believe in Trump and Musk’s mantra that the government is racist supporting genocide and land stealing. That these allegations are not supported by the facts is not relevant to them or theIr American benefactors. These people are the hangovers from the apartheid regime and the fact that they are classified as an ideal fit into American society has to be a cause for concern to Americans.
The Refugee Convention’s updated protocol defining refugee status is someone who has a well founded fear of persecution based on their demographic or opinion. The fact that South Africa has a Constitution, which Ruth Bader Ginsberg maintained was the only one better than the American, a fearlessly independent Constitutional Court, the rule of law and habeas corpus has to make a claim of refugee status at kindest a far stretch - especially compared to the actual refugees who are being deported.
AT THE END OF THE DAY
This saga still has to play out however the fact that Trump elected this group as his DEI is another example as to who he believes is a true American and his blatant hypocrisy.
Instead of paying airlines to transport the Afrikaner refugees maybe he can lend his Qatari Boeing which need not be upgraded for the purpose.