Rubio declares South African ambassador to US persona non grata

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that South Africa's ambassador to the United States "is no longer welcome" in the country.

Rubio, in a post on X, accused Ebrahim Rasool on Friday of being a "race-baiting politician" who hates President Donald Trump and declared him "persona non grata."

"South Africa's Ambassador to the United States is no longer welcome in our great country," Rubio said.

He didn't give further reasoning.

Rubio shared a link to a Breitbart article covering remarks Rasool made at a foreign policy seminar earlier Friday, when he said Trump is "mobilising a supremacism against the incumbency" at home and abroad.

The State Department did not have additional details, and it was unclear whether the ambassador was even in the US at the time the decision was made. Rubio posted as he was flying back to Washington from a Group of 7 foreign ministers in Quebec.

US-South Africa fallout

It comes after Trump signed an executive order that cut aid and assistance to the Black-led South African government.

In the order, Trump said South Africa's Afrikaners, who are descendants of mainly Dutch colonial settlers, were being targeted by a new law that allows the government to expropriate private land.

The South African government has denied its new law is tied to race and says Trump's claims over the country and the law have been full of misinformation and distortions.

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Source: TRT