IN AN unprecedented and extraordinary move last week, the Trump Administration swiftly expelled Ebrahim Rasool and declared him Persona Non-Grata. The US government told Rasool to leave US soil within a week. This marks the latest development in the rapidly deteriorating bilateral relations between the United States of America and South Africa.

Rasool, the former Premier of the Western Cape, is supposed to be a seasoned diplomat. He just served as South Africa’s ambassador to the United States for the second time. He first served as South Africa’s ambassador to the US from 2010 until 2015 when the friendly Barack Obama was the US president. Then his second and short-lived stint in 2025 coincided with the more hostile Trump taking reigns on January 20, 2025, to start his delayed second term as President.

For this reason, one would have expected Rasool to possess the foresight and maturity to handle the job of mending the fraught relations between South Africa and the US. Like an amateurish statesman, Rasool played into the hands of Trump and Marco Rubio, the new US Secretary of State. It is often said that foreign policy is the extension and reflection of domestic policy.

However, make no mistake that this is just about the US’s harsh handling of Rasool as an individual. This is about the US sending a strong message to the ANC that it will no longer tolerate its perceived hostility towards the US government and its strong ally, Israel. We are likely to see the Trump Administration impose sanctions on some ANC leaders.

The expulsion comes after Rasool addressed a MISTRA webinar that discussed South Africa’s diplomatic challenges in the era of Trump. In his presentation, Rasool boldly and blatantly accused the US President, Donald Trump, of leading a “white supremacist” Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement.

Rasool further insinuated that the MAGA movement seeks to chase away non-white illegal immigrants while welcoming Afrikaners to prevent minorities from becoming a majority in the US. To rub salt into the wound, Rasool also brought up the issue of the US arming Israel in his webinar presentation.

#politcs

The Trump Administration expels South Africa’s ambassador to the United States