State Secretary Marco Rubio has claimed that Ebrahim Rasool “hates America” and President Trump personally
South Africa’s ambassador to the United States, Ebrahim Rasool, has been declared persona non grata and is no longer welcome in the country, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced in a rare diplomatic move on Friday.
The South African government has yet to issue an official response after Rubio accused Rasool of being a “race-baiting politician” who harbors animosity toward Americans and President Donald Trump personally.
“South Africa’s ambassador to the United States is no longer welcome in our great country,” Rubio said in a post on X, adding, “We have nothing to discuss with him, and so he is considered persona non grata.”
Rubio did not provide specific reasons for the expulsion but shared a link to a Breitbart story about Rasool’s recent speech at a webinar hosted by a South African think tank, during which he criticized the Trump administration’s policies.
“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… abroad as well,” Rasool told the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection (MISTRA) forum on Friday. He described Trump’s MAGA movement as “a response not simply to a supremacist instinct, but to very clear data that shows great demographic shifts in the USA.”
“I think that there is also an export of the revolution,” he added, claiming it was “no accident that Elon Musk has involved himself in UK politics” and that “Vice President Vance addressed the Alternative for Germany [AfD] to strengthen them in their election campaign.”
The diplomatic rift comes amid escalating tensions between Washington and Pretoria. Trump recently signed an executive order cutting aid to South Africa, citing a controversial land expropriation law that he claims discriminates against white South Africans.
The South African government maintains that the law aims to address historical disparities, as white farmers still own the majority of farmland despite making up only about 7% of the population. The government has set a target of transferring 30% of farmland to black farmers by 2030.
Rasool’s expulsion is an uncommon move in diplomatic relations, though lower-ranking diplomats have been subjected to similar actions in the past. The last time the US declared a foreign ambassador persona non grata was in 2008, when it expelled Bolivia’s ambassador in a reciprocal response after Bolivia accused US envoy Philip Goldberg of interfering in its internal affairs.
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