“He’s no longer welcome in our great country”: US expels South Africa’s ambassador amid rising diplomatic tensions
Creator: Kevin Dietsch | Credit: Getty Images Copyright: 2025 Getty Images
The United States has expelled South Africa’s ambassador to Washington, Ebrahim Rasool, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio declaring him “no longer welcome in our great country”.
The move, announced Friday, adds to the growing strain in US-South Africa relations since President Donald Trump returned to office.
Rubio, in a post on X, accused Rasool of being a “race-baiting politician” who hates America and President Trump. His remarks were linked to an article from right-wing outlet Breitbart, which quoted Rasool’s recent online lecture, where he criticized Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement.
Rasool suggested that Trump was mobilizing “supremacism” in response to demographic shifts in the US, a comment that Rubio described as unacceptable.
The South African presidency responded on Saturday, calling the decision “regrettable” and reaffirming its commitment to maintaining mutually beneficial relations with the US. However, tensions have been escalating between the two nations, particularly after Trump signed an executive order last month freezing aid to South Africa.
The order cited “egregious actions,” “unjust racial discrimination” against white Afrikaners, and concerns over South Africa’s Expropriation Act, which the US claims unfairly targets white landowners.
The South African government has denied the accusations, insisting that the law is not race-based.
However, a White House fact sheet accuses the country of “blatant discrimination against ethnic minority descendants of settler groups”.
Rasool previously served as South Africa’s ambassador to Washington from 2010 to 2015, before being reappointed in 2025.
A Cape Town native, he has long been involved in politics, attributing his passion to his family’s forcible eviction from a whites-only neighborhood when he was nine years old.
