May 13, 2025
'White farmers are being brutally killed in South Africa' warned President Donald this week amid all the uproar and craziness over tariffs, world trade and kickoff of a campaign to force Big Pharma to lower its prices to consumers.
Why would Trump target South Africa? First, because South Africa dared accuse Israel's far right government of genocide and war crimes in its savage repression of Gaza's Palestinians. An estimated 55,000 Palestinians, the majority women and children, have been killed by Israel in Gaza. Another estimated 2,500 Palestinians are believed to have died in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, and some 2,000 or more dead remain under the ruins of destroyed apartment buildings in Gaza.
The Trump Administration is very close to Israel's hard right-wing government. So far, Trump has followed and defended Israel's repression and slaughter in Gaza. It's often hard to tell if the American dog is wagging the Israeli tail or vice versa.
Trump's government has repeatedly lashed out at South Africa for accusing Israel of genocide and war crimes. Trump and his MAGA backers are well known for their negative feelings about blacks in general and have made efforts to eradicate often deep black influence in US society. Bringing in whites from South Africa is a novel way of lessening America's infatuation with all things black under the Biden administration.
As a native New Yorker, I well recall the attempts by past Democratic governments to flood the city with immigrants who would inevitably vote Democratic. The Biden administration tried the same strategy to secure black votes for the Democrats. Vast welfare schemes were set up to cater to black and colored voters. Many of these schemes are now being dismantled by the Trump hit squad. Meanwhile, the Trump White House is busy trying to import more Hindu Indians to replace Muslims who are increasingly unwelcome these days in Maga USA.
In fact, I sympathize with the plight of white South African farmers. I spent much time while in South Africa with white farmers, known as Boers. They were very much like the Homesteaders of the American West: tough, rough and ready, God-fearing and straight shooters.
Many Boer families had been in South Africa's Natal Province and Orange Free State since the 1600's, much longer than black Zulu or Xhosa tribes. They are the real South Africans. I called them and white Rhodesians 'the lost white tribes of Africa.' America would benefit from offering them new homes. But they deserve to keep their homes in South Africa and Rhodesia (today Zimbabwe).
I recall visiting isolated Boer farmers in the Transvaal, with the South African army mixed race units. We visited farmhouses that had held off attacks by African Congress guerillas. Some were burned and their white occupants murdered. Whites had begun to flee South Africa. So, Trump is right to offer them asylum. But what about Palestinians?