Trump Is Using a White Nationalist Conspiracy Theory to Inform Policy

President Trump hasn’t paid much mind to problems in Africa since taking office. Earlier this year he made an offhand remark about the continent’s “shithole countries,” but that’s about it. The comment, which came during an Oval Office meeting about protections for immigrants, renewed debate about the president’s white nationalism, which has grown harder and harder to ignore since he wondered in January why the United States can’t just accept more immigrants from countries like Norway. Trump fueled the flames last night when he once again invoked Africa, this time in service of a white nationalist conspiracy theory.

Link to tweet

The tweet came less than two hours after Fox News host Tucker Carlson criticized the State Department for not doing enough to prevent the “racist” South African government from taking land from the country’s white farmers.

Link to tweet

What Carlson described is a pet issue for white nationalists. As is the case with most everything Trump opines on, it’s far more complicated than he realizes. During apartheid, black South Africans were restricted from owning land in much of the country. When apartheid ended in 1994, white South Africans still owned the vast majority of the country’s land despite representing only a fraction of the population. This is still the case, and various land-reform measures have either failed or are progressing too slowly to make a difference. In an attempt to remedy the situation, the ruling African National Congress has changed the country’s constitution to allow the government to legally seize land. Although this has yet to happen, the move has been a source of controversy.

The “large scale killing of farmers” is a conspiracy theory pushed by white supremacists who want to believe a white genocide is underway in South Africa. The theory has been propagated internationally by a white-rights group called AfriForum, which once described apartheid as a “so-called” injustice. In May, the group visited Washington to meet with the U.S. Agency for International Development and the staff of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), and pose for a picture with national-security adviser John Bolton. Though violent crime is a widespread issue in South Africa, AfriForum has singled out attacks on white farmers as racially motivated. The issue has gained traction on white nationalist forums in the United States.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/trump-south-africa-714744/