The Trump administration has ejected South African Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool out of the country, declaring him persona non grata after he gave a lecture claiming that President Donald Trump is a white supremacist leader.
Rubio linked to a Breitbart News article that reported on a lecture Rasool had given Friday morning to a South African think tank, in which he had claimed that Trump was leading a global white supremacist movement.
Rasool also had a history of supporting Hamas, which reportedly led American officials to avoid meetings with him.
Rasool’s ejection is the latest chapter in a confrontation between South Africa and the U.S. over South Africa’s expropriation laws and its alliance with hostile regimes such as Chin and Iran. South Africa equivocated on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and led international efforts to isolate Israel after the Hamas terror attack of October 7, 2023.