How false claims of ‘white genocide’ made their way to the White House

On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order effectively halting the admission of tens of thousands of people fleeing war and persecution around the world, including Afghans who had worked with the US military. Shortly afterwards, though, he made a special exception for white South Africans.

More than 8,000 Afrikaners have applied for asylum in the US. Trump last week claimed that white farmers in South Africa are being “brutally killed” and their “land is being confiscated”. He told reporters: “It’s a genocide that’s taking place, that you people don’t want to write about, but it’s a terrible thing.”

The same claim has been made by Elon Musk, who is South African. In 2023, he said that South Africa’s ­president, Cyril Ramaphosa, refused to condemn those “openly pushing for a genocide of white people in South Africa”.

The idea of a “white genocide” has a long history in both US and South African rightwing circles. Though its roots stretch back to the early 20th century, it was popularised by conspiracy theorist bloggers in the late 1990s. The idea began to move from obscure corners of the internet towards the political mainstream during the first Trump administration.

In 2017, Stefan Molyneux, an American alt-right YouTuber, published a series of videos warning of an imminent race war and featuring interviews with prominent apologists of apartheid in South Africa. Among them was Simon Roche, a senior member of the white nationalist group the Suidlanders, who spent six months of that year in the US promoting the idea of “white genocide”.

Alex Jones, the conspiracy ­theo­rist, has also discussed it. In 2018, the notion was picked up by Tucker Carlson, who covered attacks on South Africa’s farmers on his Fox News show. This prompted tweets from Trump, who ordered the state department to monitor farm seizures and killings in the country.

Data on farm killings is patchy in South Africa, one of the world’s most violent societies with a murder rate of 45 per 100,000 people (the rate in the US is 6 per 100,000; in the UK it’s 1). According to analyst Chris de Kock, a specialist in crime in South Africa, there are roughly 50 murders a year on farms, accounting for less than 0.2% of all homicides.

Nechama Brodie, author of Farm Killings in South Africa, says these murders are a symptom of South Africa’s “incredibly high” levels of ­violence. She also points out that the victims are not just white but include black farm workers.

“People living and working on farms are experiencing high levels of violence, like all society, and they need help,” she says. “But people who spread claims that the violence impacting white farms is worse have no evidence to back this up.” She added that white Afrikaners have been used in the US and Europe “by rightwing nationalists to promote the idea of a threat against ‘whitehood’. It’s a longstanding trope”.

Three decades on from the end of apartheid, white South Africans make up just over 7% of the population but still own 70% of the registered land used for farming and agriculture and have lower poverty and unemployment rates than black South Africans.

Yet many white South Africans claim they face racial discrimination. They cite employment laws requiring firms to hire mostly black workers, as well as chants at rallies by leftwing black leaders to “Kill the Boers”, a revolutionary-era slogan. (The word means “farmer” in Afrikaans.)

“My view is there’s literally no future for me as a white person in South Africa,” says Werner, a legal clerk in the administrative capital, Pretoria, who applied for asylum in the US on Monday. In his view, a “white genocide” is slowly unfolding. “We have politicians calling for the slaughter of whites – ‘Kill the Boer, K kill the F farmer’,” he says. “It’s not happening yet, but a genocide is a long process and the groundwork is being laid.”

Under Elon Musk’s influence, the concept has again found prominence within Trump’s circles, becoming a feature of a diplomatic spat with South Africa, which has brought a case at the international court of justice accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza. The US has expelled South Africa’s ambassador, cut aid for HIV/Aids programmes and refused to attend a G20 summit in Johannesburg.

Trump made the refugee offer to Afrikaners after Ramaphosa signed a bill allowing the government to expropriate land without compensation if it is not being used. Trump called this further evidence of anti-white persecution. South African officials say the law is no different to laws in other countries.

Ramaphosa’s critics say he has failed to condemn “Kill the Boer, kill the farmer” chants and played down the seriousness of farm killings. Last week, he called Afri­kaners who left for the US “cowards” who “don’t fit the bill” of refugees. “As South Africans, we are resilient,” he said. “We don’t run away from our problems.”

Adriaan Vos, a white farmer in Gauteng province, does not plan to leave. In March, his farm was attacked in the early hours by gunmen who shot him and burned down his house. “They shot at me 15 times and I was hit three times – in the knee, the back and my lung,” he said. “I’m lucky. That’s the way we live in South Africa, my friend.” He is shaken but undeter­red: “I like it here. I don’t want to live as a refugee.”

Vos described grisly past attacks against neighbours, involving torture, by robbers looking for guns, which are common on South African farms. He is angry with Ramaphosa’s government for not taking action. But he also stresses that these attacks do not just affect white farmers, as Trump supporters claim.

“It’s white and black farmers,” he said. “Before, it was only white farmers, but now black farmers have bought farms, and they are in the same boat as us. Every time there is an attack, they are just as scared as the white farmers.”

Photogaphs by Per-Anders Pettersson/Getty and Marco Longari/AFP via Getty