Rasool defiant after US expulsion, returns to South Africa

Key topics:.Rasool ousted after criticizing Trump, calls himself a "persona non grata."US-South Africa ties worsen over land reform and racial tensions.Rasool urges SA to reassess US trade ties under Trump administration..Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here..Support South Africa's bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here..If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here..By S'thembile Cele___STEADY_PAYWALL___.The South African ambassador expelled from the US returned to his home country, saying he has "no regrets" about the comments that led to him being told to leave..Ebrahim Rasool was welcomed back on Sunday by throngs of supporters when he arrived at Cape Town international airport. "I will wear the badge of persona non grata with dignity, knowing that I have done the right thing," he said, in comments broadcast live on national television. .US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said earlier this month in a post on X that Rasool is "no longer welcome" in the country after he made comments about President Donald Trump, escalating a running feud between Washington and Pretoria..South Africa's Ambassador to the United States is no longer welcome in our great country.Emrahim Rasool is a race-baiting politician who hates America and hates @POTUS.We have nothing to discuss with him and so he is considered PERSONA NON GRATA.https://t.co/mnUnwGOQdx— Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) March 14, 2025.Relations between South Africa and its second largest trading partner have soured since Trump falsely accused the southern African nation of unlawfully seizing land from the white minority. The South African authorities have not confiscated any private land since the end of apartheid in 1994.."Sometimes you must get some distance between a moment designed to humiliate you and the anger that would come from it and then expressing yourself," Rasool said on Sunday, as he asked for a "week or two" to consider his response to the events..Rasool said the US under Trump has changed. "It is not the US of Obama, it is not the US of Clinton, it is a different US and therefore our language must change," he said.."Not only to transactionality but also a language that can penetrate a group that has clearly identified a fringe white community in South Africa as their constituency surrounded by a white diaspora in the White House. That is what we are up against.".The diplomatic episode is only the latest in a bitter, racially charged feud between the two countries, spurred in part by Trump's South African-born billionaire adviser Elon Musk, who has spread the conspiracy theory of a "genocide" against South Africa's White farmers..That led to a White House executive order halting US foreign assistance to South Africa and declaring that the US refugee system would give priority to Afrikaner "victims of unjust racial discrimination.".Rasool said he would be meeting with South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday to report on the actions that led to his dismissal as well as his view on relations between the two nations..South Africa should consider forfeiting trade deals and ties for the duration of the Trump term if it meant compromising its values, said Rasool, who also served as South Africa's ambassador to the US from 2010 to 2015. While Africa's most industrialized economy is not a global economic or military superpower, it occupies the role of being a "moral superpower," he said..Read also:.🔒 Rubio declares South African envoy 'Persona Non Grata' over Trump remarks, escalating diplomatic feudRasool's appointment as US Ambassador raises red flags over Islamist ties – Nicholas Woode-SmithEx-Trump top diplomat calls for tough stand on South Africa's 'foreign policy hypocrisy'.© 2025 Bloomberg L.P.