The Blubber

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday to freeze U.S. assistance to South Africa, citing concerns over a new law that the White House claims discriminates against the country’s white minority. The law, known as the Expropriation Act, aims to correct injustices from South Africa’s apartheid era but has been criticized by Trump’s administration as unfairly targeting ethnic minority Afrikaners.

"As long as South Africa continues to support bad actors on the world stage and allows violent attacks on disfavored minority farmers, the United States will stop aid and assistance to the country," the White House said in a summary of the order. Trump is also expected to announce a refugee resettlement program for white South African farmers and their families.

The Expropriation Act, signed into law by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, grants the government power to seize land in certain situations—such as when land is unused or when redistribution serves the public interest. The law is intended to redress historical injustices, where Black South Africans were dispossessed of their land under apartheid and forced into segregated areas.

However, critics, including Elon Musk, have voiced strong opposition. Musk, a South African-born tech entrepreneur and close ally of Trump, recently highlighted the law on social media, portraying it as a threat to South Africa’s white minority. Musk now heads Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency.

The executive order also references South Africa’s role in supporting a case brought before the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of genocide, a move that further soured relations between Washington and Pretoria.

The suspension of U.S. aid to South Africa is part of a broader freeze on most American overseas assistance as Trump pivots toward what he describes as an "America First" foreign policy.