The United States has expelled South Africa’s ambassador to Washington, Ebrahim Rasool, following comments he made about President Donald Trump.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the decision on Friday, saying Rasool was “no longer welcome in our great country.”
In a post on X, Rubio accused the ambassador of being a “race-baiting politician” and claimed he hated America and Trump.
“We have nothing to discuss with him,” Rubio added.
This move adds to growing tensions between the US and South Africa, which have worsened since Trump took office.
Rubio’s post included a link to an article from the right-wing media outlet Breitbart, which reported on Rasool’s recent remarks in an online lecture.
During the lecture, Rasool said Trump’s political movement, known as Maga, was based on racial fears.
“What Donald Trump is launching is an assault on incumbency, those who are in power, by mobilising a supremacism against the incumbency, at home… and abroad,” Rasool had said.
He also mentioned demographic shifts in the US, saying, “The voting electorate… is projected to become 48 percent white.”
Rubio responded by calling Rasool “PERSONA NON GRATA”, a Latin term meaning an unwelcome person.
Last month, Trump signed an executive order cutting US assistance to South Africa.
The order cited “unjust racial discrimination” against white Afrikaners and “egregious actions” by the South African government.
It also mentioned the Expropriation Act, a law that the US claims unfairly targets white farmers by allowing land seizures.
A White House statement said, “As long as South Africa continues to support bad actors on the world stage and allows violent attacks on innocent disfavored minority farmers, the United States will stop aid and assistance to the country.”
The South African government has denied that the law is based on race, according to the Associated Press.
It is rare for the US to expel a senior foreign ambassador, with experts noting that even during the Cold War, the US and Russia did not take such actions against each other’s top envoys.
Rasool had previously served as South Africa’s ambassador to the US from 2010 to 2015 before returning to the position in 2025.
He was born in Cape Town and grew up under South Africa’s apartheid system. At age nine, his family was forcibly removed from their home because it was declared a whites-only area.
The South African embassy in Washington has not yet commented on the expulsion.
