(NewsNation) — President Trump’s claim that white Afrikaners are under attack is just one issue South Africa must address as it seeks to strengthen ties with the United States, a State Department spokesperson tells “Elizabeth Vargas Reports.”
Also problematic are the South African government’s support of terror sponsor Iran and the way it has accused Israel of genocide in that country’s war against Hamas in Gaza, Tammy Bruce said.
“South African citizens deserve better. Certainly, the world deserves better, and these kinds of rogue attitudes have to be called out,” she said. “And for President Trump to do it in the White House gives it a legitimacy that is important and serious and hopefully will be taken to heart.”
Trump ambushed South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Wednesday during an Oval Office meeting with cameras rolling, saying the African nation is allowing widespread violence against white farmers, the minority Afrikaners who descended from European settlers. Ramaphosa took a collegial and nonconfrontational tone as he responded to Trump’s concerns.
Observers say homicides are a major problem in South Africa but that statistics do not support the idea of massacres on farms against white occupants.
“I take President Trump at his word. He’s been very clear about his opinion about the violence in South Africa,” Bruce said.
Ramaphosa visited the White House this week in hopes of resetting relations with the United States while facing looming tariffs on goods his country exports here. Trump used the opportunity to highlight what he says is the plight of Afrikaners. Besides violence, the White House condemns a new South African law Ramaphosa signed allowing the government to seize property without compensation.
“That clearly has got to be confronted and stopped,” Bruce said.
