Critics blast Trump for endorsing white nationalist conspiracy theory on South Africa

Washington — President Donald Trump’s promotion of a white nationalist conspiracy theory involving South Africa prompted fierce backlash there Thursday and fresh criticism in the United States that he is compromising American foreign policy to stoke his far-right political base.

Former U.S. diplomats and South African leaders denounced Trump’s declaration in a tweet late Wednesday that he had instructed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to monitor the “large scale killing” of white farmers and the government’s expropriations of their land.

White nationalist groups have for years spread false claims about the murder rates, which have been widely debunked. Local police data show the number of people murdered on farms has dropped by half over the past two decades — from 140 in 2001-2002 to 74 in 2016-2017, according to the Associated Press.

Trump’s tweet appeared to come in response to a segment on Fox News in which host Tucker Carlson railed against a plan from South Africa’s ruling party to pursue constitutional changes allowing the government to redistribute land without compensation. The measure is designed to redress racial inequalities that have persisted nearly a quarter-century after the end of apartheid in 1994.

White nationalists in the United States and South Africa, where a fringe group called Afriforum has advanced the conspiracy theory, hailed the president’s remarks. David Duke, a former Ku Klux Klan leader, thanked Trump on Twitter and tweeted an image of a white woman holding a sign reading, “Stop white genocide.”