

State Department (Joe Raedle / Getty)
Joe Raedle / Getty


Foreign Policy’s Robbie Gramer and Colum Lynch reported Wednesday:

[T]he U.S. Embassy in South Africa has tacitly rebuked the president in a cable sent clarifying the issue and correcting misperceptions put forward by the president …

The cable, sent Wednesday morning and obtained by Foreign Policy, does not mention the president or his tweet at all. Titled “Despite Crime Epidemic, Farm Murders Down,” the cable outlines statistics on murder rates on white-owned South African farms.

“Some journalists and lobby groups have simplified complex land disputes to serve their own ends,” the cable says.

Political officers from the U.S. Embassy reached out to a broad array of experts—including farmers, police, crime researchers, and academics—to gauge the extent of violence against white farmers. They found “no evidence that murders on farms specifically target white people or are politically motivated,” the cable states.


Trump’s tweet appeared to respond to a State Department statement, aired on Tucker Carlson’s show on Fox News, which appeared to defend the South African government’s approach to land reform in optimistic terms.

Though the South African government rejected Trump’s tweet, and commentators in South Africa were generally critical of the president, some applauded his stance.



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