White South Africans have thanked US President Donald Trump for giving them ‘hope’ after he invited them to the US as refugees, with some saying ‘Trump definitely knows exactly what is going on’ in the Rainbow nation.
In October the Trump administration announced it would limit the number of those seeking international protection to 7,500, giving priority to Afrikaner and white South Africans.
This favouring is backdropped by the launch of the refugee programme U.S. Mission to South Africa.
‘My own father, believe it or not, was attacked on his farm. Him and his brother,’ Tina (not her real name) told the Daily Mail.
The white Afrikaner from East London, Eastern Cape deems the US refugee programme a lifeline and an escape from threats at home.
‘The attacks that I know of happen around five times a year. And it is just far too many. Plenty of people have died,’ Tina, 55, said.
‘They take screwdrivers and a hammer and hit through people’s toenails. They put you in the bath and pour boiling water from a scalding kettle over you. It is just horrendous. That’s the truth of the matter. That’s what they do. And then it is put down as a robbery’.
On why she believes the attacks are allegedly being hidden by the South African State, the former bank worker said: ‘They don’t want the world to know what is actually going on.’
White South Africans have thanked US President Donald Trump for giving them ‘hope’ after he invited them to the US as refugees. Pictured: Donald Trump meets South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 21, 2025
Pictures posted to the Stop Farm Attacks & Murders in South Africa Facebook page show the horrific injuries inflicted on farmers
In October the Trump administration announced it would limit the number of those seeking international protection to 7,500, giving priority to Afrikaner and white South Africans who say they are being targetted in horrific farm attacks
Tina is one of hundreds of white South Africans applying for the refugee status.
There has been an upsurge in Facebook and WhatsApp groups dedicated to navigating the US refugee process – with many citing fears of crime, economic decline and a belief that white citizens face systematic discrimination.
Many show thanks to President Trump on the social media groups, with one posting an image of the US President with the caption, ‘Pray for this man. He is fighting an evil that we can’t even imagine!’
The post received comments: ‘We pray for President Donald Trump’; ‘Love Trump’; and ‘President Trump is constantly in our prayers’.
The refugee programme offers settler status to both Afrikaners – descendants of mainly Dutch, German and French settlers – and English-speaking white South Africans, descended mainly from British settlers.
It is unclear how many South Africans have applied to the refugee programme and no official numbers have been released.
‘Because of Trump, we now have hope’, Tina said.
She added: ‘When the whole refugee programme opened, I put my statement of interest within an hour’.
Image shows a white South African’s injuries following an alleged attack
This came after an attack ‘close to home’ left her ‘shaken’.
She explained: ‘It was just a normal farm attack, where, you know, they were bludgeoned and both survived.’
The criteria for refugee admissions was published last month and stated to be ‘Addressing Egregious Actions of the Republic of South Africa’.
The South African Government has strongly denied that Afrikaners and other white South Africans are being persecuted, while the African National Congress (ANC) called the refugee programme ‘madness’.
On the programme, Tina explained: ‘[It is] good for those who can get out of here and start afresh and actually just live life. Because we are not living here at all.’
She added: ‘I just want some peace. I just don’t want to have to look over my shoulder every single time I leave my property.’
Tina insisted that leaving South Africa is not something anyone in her family ‘wants’ to do, but a fear for her two children’s safety has led to her whole family applying for international protection.
‘South Africa is a fantastic country. Nobody wants to leave,’ she said.
A man appears bloodied in a hospital bed
A protester holds a bible as he speaks to South African farmers & farm workers gathered at a demonstration at the Green Point stadium to protest against farmer murders in the country, on October 30, 2017, in Cape Town
‘But if you want a future for your children and are given it on a golden platter like that, there is no option but to go – if you can.’
To be eligible for US refugee resettlement, individuals must be: a South African nationalist; Afrikaner ethnicity or be a member of a racial minority in South Africa; able to articulate a past personal experience of persecution or fear of future persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion; be 18 years old or referred with a parent; and living inside South Africa.
Tina said several couples in her East London community have applied – a sign, she believes, of growing desperation among middle-class white families.
‘It is not about bettering ourselves,’ she said. ‘It is for our children’s futures.’
If accepted, Tina said they would be unable to ship any possessions to the US due to the cost – and would travel with only what fits into a suitcase.
Refugee applicants are permitted one 23kg bag each.
Tina said she would only take clothing, a handful of family photographs and her Bible.
‘We can’t afford a container. We can’t afford anything, really,’ she said.
‘We would leave with our suitcases and that is it.’
Their house, which the family has lived in for more than 20 years, would be abandoned.
South Africa and the U.S. share a tense timeline that includes President Trump’s accusation the South African government is facilitating a genocide against minority white Afrikaners
Tina explained selling is impossible while they wait for a decision.
And even if they tried, the area is saturated with properties on the market.
‘Every seventh house in our suburb is for sale,’ she said.
‘If we get the call, people leave within days. There is no time to sell anything.’
She added one thing is non-negotiable: ‘I would take six dogs. I would not go anywhere without them.’
She said her family hopes to be placed in Southern America but would accept any US state: ‘Wherever we are placed, we will go. We would just be grateful for the opportunity.’
South Africa and the U.S. share a tense timeline that includes President Trump’s accusation the South African government is facilitating a genocide against minority white Afrikaners, which arose during a contentious White House meeting with President Cyril Ramaphosa earlier this year.
Trump allegedly showed evidence of a ‘genocide’ of white farmers to Ramaphosa, with footage he announced were the graves of more than a thousand white farmers.
While showing the footage, he said: ‘It’s a terrible sight…I’ve never seen anything like it. Those people are all killed.’
The video has been reported to be a misrepresentation, with crosses being planted days ahead of a memorial procession on September 5, 2020 near Newcastle, South Africa.
The event was allegedly for a white farming couple who the police said had been murdered in late August that year.
The crosses were removed after the procession.
The latest rungs to their taut relationship ladder are Trump’s boycott of the Johannesburg G20 summit last month – and now South Africa’s absence from the invitation list for the first G20 meeting hosted under the US presidency.
Tina believed Ramaphosa ’embarrassed the country in totality’ during the meeting, adding to the long list of reasons why she wants to leave her native country.