Rubio declares South African envoy ‘Persona Non Grata’ over Trump remarks, escalating diplomatic feud

Key topics:.Secretary of State Rubio expels Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool over controversial comments.Rasool called Trump's supporters a "supremacist" movement, escalating tensions.The diplomatic row highlights ongoing frictions over South Africa's foreign relations..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 Iain Marlow*___STEAD_PAYWALL___.Secretary of State Marco Rubio said South Africa's ambassador to the US "is no longer welcome" in the country after the top envoy made comments about President Donald Trump, escalating a running feud between Washington and Pretoria..Rubio made the announcement in a post on X, linking to a Breitbart News article on a lengthy conversation that Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool had with a think-tank in Johannesburg. Rasool said that Trump and his Make America Great Again supporters are effectively a "supremacist" movement projecting "white victimhood." ."Ebrahim Rasool is a race-baiting politician who hates America and hates @POTUS," Rubio wrote, tagging Trump's official X account. "We have nothing to discuss with him and so he is considered PERSONA NON GRATA." .South Africa's Presidency called the expulsion "regrettable." Declaring the diplomat persona non grata means the Trump administration will refuse to engage with him, and it could force him to leave the country or spur his government to recall him..Sign up for the twice-weekly Next Africa newsletter for the latest business and economic news from the continent..South Africa's "urges all relevant and impacted stakeholders to maintain the established diplomatic decorum in their engagement with the matter," the Presidency said in a statement "South Africa remains committed to building a mutually beneficial relationship" with the US, according to the statement..Read more: 🔒 South Africa said to prefer bilateral US trade deal over AGOA.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. .Earlier: EU and South Africa Pledge to Draw Closer as US Targets Both.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," with Trump claiming that South Africa was expropriating their land..The South African authorities have not confiscated any private land since the end of apartheid in 1994..Ties between Washington and one of Africa's largest economies had already been frayed after South Africa filed a case in the International Court of Justice accusing Israel, a top American ally, committing a genocide against Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, as well as the African nation's ties with Russia, Iran and China. .In his comments, delivered in a lengthy conversation with the Mapungubwe Institute for Strategic Reflection posted on Friday, Rasool referred to Vice President JD Vance's meeting with a far-right German politician and Musk's interventions in UK politics, saying Trump was "mobilizing a supremacism against the incumbency" at home and abroad. .The US has expelled diplomats before. In 1999, it accused a Russian diplomat of spying, labelled him 'persona non grata' and gave him 10 days to leave the country..Read also:.Ex-Trump top diplomat calls for tough stand on South Africa's 'foreign policy hypocrisy'Marco Rubio (43) launches US Presidential candidacy as "generational choice"Rubio says he'll skip G20 meeting in South Africa over land law.© 2025 Bloomberg L.P.

Rubio declares South African envoy ‘Persona Non Grata’ over Trump remarks, escalating diplomatic feud

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