First white South Africans arrive in US as Trump claims they face discrimination

By Daphne Psaledakis, Tim Cocks and Simon Lewis

 The Trump administration welcomed on Monday 59 white South Africans it granted refugee status in the U.S., having deemed them victims of racial discrimination, while drawing criticism from Democrats and stirring confusion in South Africa.

U.S. President Donald Trump has blocked mostly non-white refugee admissions from the rest of the world but in February offered to resettle Afrikaners, the descendants of mostly Dutch settlers, saying they faced discrimination.

Asked on Monday why white South Africans were being prioritized above the victims of famine and war elsewhere in Africa, Trump said, without providing evidence, that Afrikaners were being killed.

“It’s a genocide that’s taking place,” Trump told reporters at the White House, going further than he has previously in echoing right-wing tropes about their alleged persecution.

He was not favoring Afrikaners because they are white, Trump said, adding that their race “makes no difference to me.”

South Africa maintains