Trump says he's bending rules for Afrikaners to enter US 'because they're being killed'
CAPE TOWN - United States President Donald Trump said he was bending the rules for white Afrikaner South Africans to enter his country as refugees Monday because he believed they were under threat of genocide.
Speaking at a White House press conference on Monday afternoon, just hours before the group of 49 people who left Johannesburg on Sunday night was due to land in Washington, D.C., Trump once again repeated the false narrative that white farmers were having their land confiscated and were being murdered.
Trump also confirmed remarks made by President Cyril Ramaphosa in Abidjan on Monday that a South African delegation was due to meet with him next week.
Since Trump came into office, he's been on a strict clampdown on asylum seekers, while deporting thousands of immigrants to their homelands.
Asked on Monday why he was expediting entry for South Africans and not applications from war-torn countries like Sudan or the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Trump falsely claimed that it was because they were under attack.
"Because they're being killed and we don't want to see people be killed."
Trump has once again slammed the media for not reporting on what he believes is unfolding in South Africa.
"It's a genocide that you people don't want to write about. But it's a terrible thing that's taking place. Farmers are being killed. They happen to be white."
Trump said that race was not a factor in granting the South African group asylum.
He said the group would be offered citizenship in America.
The Department of International Relations on Monday warned that the group would threaten their refugee status in the US if they were to return on holiday or to visit family in South Africa.
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