South African Ambassador to the US Removed by Secretary of State
On March 14, South Africa’s Ambassador to the United States, Ebrahim Rasool, was declared a persona-non-grata by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Rasool has until Friday to leave the US.
Rubio accused Rasool of being a race-baiter and someone who hates the US and President Donald Trump.
Rubio also cited an article from Breitbart exposing a webinar Rasool spoke at for the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection. Presumably Rasool’s comments are the chief cause behind Rubio’s decision to remove Rasool.
According to Breitbart, Rasool claimed that President Trump and the MAGA movement are inspired by a “supremacist assault on incumbency”:
“What Donald Trump is launching is an assault on incumbency, those who are in power, by mobilizing a supremacism against the incumbency, at home, and — I think I’ve illustrated — abroad as well. So in terms of that, the supremacist assault on incumbency, we see it in the domestic politics of the USA, the MAGA movement, the Make America Great Again movement, as a response not simply to a supremacist instinct, but to very clear data that shows great demographic shifts in the USA in which the voting electorate in the USA is projected to become 48% white.”
Rasool was Ambassador during the second term of President Barack Obama. During the present Trump administration, Rasool had difficulty establishing any positive connection with the administration.
Rasool’s removal is one of several actions from the Trump Administration indicating its dissatisfaction with South Africa’s policies.
The Expropriation Act 13 (enacted in 2024) allows the government of South Africa to seize the property of ethnic minorities without compensation. In response to the Act, on February 7, PresidentTrump issued an executive order cutting aid to the South Africa. The order also admits Afrikaners subject to discrimination into the United States Refugee Admissions Program.
