WATCH: State Dept Asked for Evidence of ‘Genocide’ Against White South Africans

U.S. President Donald Trump recently said that a “genocide” is taking place against white Afrikaner farmers in South Africa—a claim which has been widely (and often strongly) disputed, including by Human Rights Watch, Geoff Hill, Andile Zulu, Pauline Bax, and many white South Africans and/or Afrikaners, such as journalism professor Herman Wasserman, farmer Theo de Jager, minister of agriculture John Steenhuisen, activist Ulrich Janse van Vuuren, unionist Jaco Kleynhans, and author Max du Preez.

Trump has nevertheless signed an executive order cutting off “aid [and] assistance” to South Africa and decreeing that U.S. “shall promote the resettlement of Afrikaner refugees,” which his State Department and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have since implemented.

While Trump’s executive order accuses South Africa of “rights violations” and other alleged injustices, it also explicitly lays out what is likely one of Trump’s actual, primary motives. Among his list of grievances:

“…South Africa has taken aggressive positions towards the United States and its allies, including accusing Israel, not Hamas, of genocide in the International Court of Justice.”

At last Thursday’s State Department press briefing, deputy spokesperson Tommy Pigott was asked to provide evidence that a “genocide” is taking place against white South African farmers, and about whether the State Department is conducting a formal genocide investigation.

He repeatedly dodged these and other related questions, robotically reciting the same talking point over and over:

“There were harrowing stories that they told…”

“Fundamentally what we have seen are harrowing stories…”

“We have heard harrowing stories here…”

“The stories that we have heard are harrowing…”

Watch:

Commenting on this video, journalist Sam Husseini wrote that the Trump administration is “quite clearly going to town on this South African ‘genocide’ line” for several reasons:

• Punish South Africa for going to the ICJ regarding the actual genocide in Gaza
• Make it seem like they are standing up for alleged oppressed white folks, plays to some white working class voters who don’t perceive that it’s actually — again — for Israel (similar to how they repackaged Palestine / protests as an immigration issue)
• Push back against BRICS to the extent it’s challenging US establishment dominance

We would add that it also cheapens the word “genocide,” as the Trump administration helps carry one out with their partners in Israel.

On Saturday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio himself was asked the same basic questions on Face The Nation. Like Pigott, he dodged the question about a formal genocide investigation and failed to provide evidence that what is happening in South Africa is a “genocide”:

Q: President Trump claims there’s a genocide underway in South Africa. That’s a legal determination; the State Department would make it. Are you trying to determine that now?

RUBIO: I would determine that these people are having their properties taken from them. You can– they can call it whatever they want. But these are people that, on the basis of their race, are having their properties taken away from them, and their lives being threatened, and in some cases killed. . . .

Q: Is there evidence of a genocide that you have?

RUBIO: I think there’s evidence, absolutely, that people have been murdered; that people have been forcibly removed from their properties. . . .

‘This collapse is by design’

South Africa’s genocide case against Israel is still ongoing, but the International Court of Justice (ICJ) recently granted Israel an almost six month extension to file their counter-memorial. The deadline was originally July 28, 2025, but it has now been pushed back January 12, 2026.

Less than three weeks ago, on April 29, South Africa participated in a separate public hearing before the ICJ, in which they warned (p. 8) that Gaza is “once again under a complete siege following Israel’s breach of the ceasefire brokered by the United States, Qatar and Egypt.”

“Palestinian NGOs and major aid groups have warned that Gaza is entering into famine, and that, in their words, ‘the humanitarian aid system is facing total collapse,’ ” said South Africa’s representative Zane Dangor.

“This collapse is by design,” he added, noting that “Israel’s Defense Minister, Israel Katz, said on April 16, ‘Israel’s policy is clear ⎯ no humanitarian aid is about to enter Gaza . . . there are no preparations to enable such aid.’”

“Israel has also intensified its aggression against Palestinians in the West Bank,” Dangor said. “Israel is blocking food, water and medicines ⎯ all of which are essential to life ⎯ from entering Gaza.”

“Under the world’s watchful eye, Palestinians across the occupied Palestinian territories are being subjected to atrocity crimes, persecution, apartheid and genocide,” he said (p. 9). “While we watch, the gaze of Palestinians is directed squarely at the international community, and this Court ⎯ whose advice is urgently being sought, for the protection of their most fundamental rights, including the right to life.”

Dangor concluded (p. 12):

The international community cannot accept a reality in which an entire civilian population is deliberately starved by Israel; where the United Nations is evicted and deprived of its immunities and privileges; where third States and humanitarian organizations are prevented from rendering humanitarian assistance in solidarity, and in fulfilment of their erga omnes obligations. Nor can we accept that journalists, aid workers and first responders are being assassinated, and then hastily buried in mass graves. The United Nations is rightfully seised of this matter and calls for the Court’s urgent advice on the questions put to it by the General Assembly.

A short while later, another representative of South Africa, Jaymion Hendricks, implored the United Nations and its agencies to “continue to render humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people” and “demand and negotiate for the removal of barriers imposed by Israel,” noting that “international law prohibits Israel from the use of starvation as a method of warfare.“

“Third states,” meanwhile, have “an obligation not to recognize as lawful Israel’s internationally wrongful acts, including its banning of UNRWA, not to maintain these acts and to collaborate to bring such acts to an end,” Hendricks said, adding that it is “imperative” for them to “refrain from providing arms which enable Israel’s continued breaches of international law in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.”

Hendricks concluded (p. 23):

South Africa shares the United Nations Secretary-General’s view, that the “world has failed” the Palestinian people ⎯ “the only certainty they have is that tomorrow will be worse.” Therefore, we must “save whatever is left of our humanity”, by ending Israel’s unlawful settler colonial occupation and its intentional starving of the Palestinian population, who are being systematically brutalized and deprived of the most elementary considerations of humanity. Palestinians look to the world, and to this Court, for an end to their enduring loss, their pain and their suffering.

Timeline of Events

To get a better sense of the chronology here, and when the Trump administration’s statements and actions regarding this alleged “genocide” of white South Africans took place in relative to various other events related to Israel’s genocide against the Palestinians, here’s an abridged timeline.

Sept 5, 2024: At the Republican Jewish Coalition’s annual leadership summit, where he was introduced by Zionist billionaire “mega-donor” Miriam Adelson, Trump argues that he is more pro-Israel than Biden or Harris, and vows that the U.S. will “once again stand shoulder to shoulder” with Israel with him as president, and help it “win its war on terror.”

Sept 13, 2024: Chile joins South Africa’s genocide case against Israel, adding their weight to a growing list of countries who have previously filed such Declarations of Intervention, including Colombia, Libya, Spain, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Turkey, and numerous others.

Sept 19, 2024: At a donor event with Miriam Adelson, Trump brags about how he was “the best president ever for the people of Israel” and “gave them more than 20 billion dollars,” plus Golan Heights, the Abraham Accords, moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, etc. He says he has “a feeling” he might do “more than anything that was even done in the past” in his second term:

Oct 8, 2024: Bolivia joins South Africa’s genocide case against Israel.

Oct 28, 2024: South Africa files a legal document (known as a memorial) with the ICJ as part of its genocide case against Israel. It contains “over 750 pages of text, supported by exhibits and annexes of over 4,000 pages,” which it says provides a “comprehensive presentation of the overwhelming evidence of genocide in Gaza.”

Jan 6, 2025: Ireland joins South Africa’s genocide case against Israel.

Jan 14, 2025: Lebanon’s Nawaf Salam steps down as President of the ICJ, after he is named as his country’s new prime minister. Ugandan Christian Zionist judge Julia Sebutinde becomes the acting president.

Jan 20, 2025: Trump is sworn in as President of the United States. He quickly signs an executive order terminating sanctions against dozens of Israeli groups and individuals accused of property destruction and violence against Palestinians in the West Bank.

Jan 22, 2025: South African president Cyril Ramaphosa reportedly says about Trump and the United States: “I’m not worried about our relations. I spoke to him soon after he was elected, congratulated him, and we both said we are looking forward to continued dealings and engagements.”

Jan 25, 2025: Trump instructs the Pentagon to release the Biden administration’s hold on the delivery of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel and talks about facilitating the mass displacement of Palestinians out of Gaza, which he says could be “long term”.

Feb 2, 2025: Trump says on Truth Social:

South Africa is confiscating land, and treating certain classes of people VERY BADLY. It is a bad situation that the Radical Left Media doesn’t want to so much as mention. A massive Human Rights VIOLATION, at a minimum, is happening for all to see. The United States won’t stand for it, we will act. Also, I will be cutting off all future funding to South Africa until a full investigation of this situation has been completed!

Feb 3, 2025: Ramaphosa posts a response to Trump’s statement:

South Africa is a constitutional democracy that is deeply rooted in the rule of law, justice and equality. The South African government has not confiscated any land.

The recently adopted Expropriation Act is not a confiscation instrument, but a constitutionally mandated legal process that ensures public access to land in an equitable and just manner as guided by the constitution.

South Africa, like the United States of America and other countries, has always had expropriation laws that balance the need for public usage of land and the protection of rights of property owners.

We look forward to engaging with the Trump administration over our land reform policy and issues of bilateral interest. We are certain that out of those engagements, we will share a better and common understanding over these matters.

The US remains a key strategic political and trade partner for South Africa. With the exception of PEPFAR Aid, which constitutes 17% of South Africa’s HIVAids programme, there is no other funding that is received by South Africa from the United States.

Feb 4, 2025: Trump overtly endorses the full ethnic cleansing of Gaza during a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, stating that “the US will take over” and “own” the Gaza Strip and openly advocating for the “permanent” relocation of “all” of the Palestinians who live there.

Feb 5, 2025: Rubio, a fanatical Israel supporter, says he “will NOT attend the G20 summit” in Johannesburg, South Africa because they are doing “very bad things” like “expropriating private property” and promoting a “DEI and climate change” agenda, and he doesn’t want to coddle “anti-Americanism.”

Feb 7, 2025: Trump issues an executive order accusing South Africa of “rights violations in its country” and “undermining United States foreign policy,” specifically complaining that it has “taken aggressive positions towards the United States and its allies, including accusing Israel, not Hamas, of genocide in the International Court of Justice.” The order also says that the U.S. “shall promote the resettlement of Afrikaner refugees.”

Feb 9, 2025: Trump advisor and mega-donor Elon Musk — who joined Ben Shapiro for a pro-Israel propaganda event last year and was a personal guest of Benjamin Netanyahu when he spoke before the U.S. congress in July of 2024 — quotes a post containing video clips of South African political figures Julius Malema and Andile Mngxitama, asking South Africa’s President: “Why do you allow this, @CyrilRamaphosa? This is a major political party in the South African parliament and their leader is calling for genocide of white people.” Ramaphosa’s spokesperson Vincent Magwenya replies:

Please get a grip! These are old videos, surely, you can verify them. Not a single white person has been killed by these individuals or because of their utterances. We have legal instruments to deal with incitement. You really need to familiarize yourself with our legal system.

Mar 3, 2025: The ICJ announces that Judge Yuji Iwasawa of Japan has been elected as its new president.

Mar 6, 2025: The State Department issues a directive ordering an immediate pause on most U.S. foreign aid or assistance to South Africa, in accordance with Trump’s executive order.

Mar 24, 2025: Elon Musk says, “The legacy media never mentions white genocide in South Africa, because it doesn’t fit their narrative that whites can be victims.”

April 14, 2025: The ICJ grants Israel an almost six month extension to file their counter-memorial in South Africa’s genocide case against them.

April 22, 2025: Trump says he and Netanyahu are “on the same side of every issue.”

April 29, 2025: South Africa once again condemns Israel’s “atrocity crimes, persecution, apartheid and genocide” at the ICJ, including “starvation as a method of warfare.” They call on the UN and its agencies to work to end Israel’s siege, and on other countries to institute arms embargoes against Israel.

May 12, 2025: Trump says a “genocide” is taking place in South Africa against white farmers. His deputy Secretary of State holds a press conference at Washington Dulles International Airport to welcome a few dozen white “refugees” from South Africa.

May 14, 2025: Grok, the AI chatbot that’s integrated into the social media platform X, starts “frequently bringing up the concept of a ‘white genocide’ in South Africa – even in unrelated conversations,” and says that its creators instructed it to treat the concept as a “credible issue.” Grok is owned and controlled by xAI, whose CEO is Elon Musk. xAI later states that “an unauthorized modification” had been “made to the Grok response bot’s prompt on X… which directed Grok to provide a specific response on a political topic.”

May 15, 2025: The State Department’s Tommy Pigott fails to provide any specific evidence to back up Trump’s “genocide” claim when pressed, instead repeating the phrase “harrowing stories” over and over. He avoids answering a direct question about whether the State Department is conducting a formal genocide investigation.

May 17, 2025: Secretary of State Marco Rubio is asked for evidence that a “genocide” is taking place, and if the State Department is conducting a formal genocide investigation. Like Pigott, he fails to provide the former and dodges the latter.