US calls South African ambassador to Washington "racist" and declares persona non grata after criticizing Trump

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Friday that South Africa's ambassador to the country, Ebrahim Rasool, has been declared "persona non grata."

Statements by Marco Rubio

Through a publication on the social network X, Rubio called Rasool a politician "who incites racism" and accused him of maintaining a hostile posture toward President Donald Trump.

"Emrahim Rasool is a race-baiting politician who hates America and hates the president," Rubio wrote. "We have nothing to discuss with him, and so he is considered persona non grata," he added.

The secretary of state accompanied his message with an article citing previous statements by the South African ambassador on Trump's foreign policy. In them, Rasool criticized the president's stance on land expropriation in South Africa and his relations with Iran and Hamas.

According to the ambassador, Trump's defiant attitude towards international bodies such as the UN and the G-20 is not just about political strategy, but is driven by white supremacism. Moreover, Rasool claimed that the slogan "Make America Great Again" reflected the fear of certain American conservative sectors of the growth of diversity in the country.

Context of the decision.

The diplomatic conflict occurs after Trump signed an executive order reducing economic assistance to South Africa, claiming that the government of Cyril Ramaphosa was expropriating land from Afrikaners, descendants of European settlers. The South African administration has rejected these accusations and maintains that land reform seeks to correct the effects of apartheid, when black people were dispossessed of their land.

The Expropriation Act, passed earlier this year, allows the government to redistribute unused land or in cases of public interest, without explicit reference to racial issues. However, Trump and figures close to him, such as Elon Musk, have denounced the measure as a threat against the country's white minority.