The following article by Eric Lutz was posted on the Mic.com website August 23, 2018:
President Donald Trump late Wednesday night said he has directed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to “closely study the South Africa land and farm seizures and expropriations and the large scale killing of farmers” — a reference to white nationalist propaganda warning of a “white genocide” in the country.
Donald J. Trump
✔@realDonaldTrump
I have asked Secretary of State @SecPompeo to closely study the South Africa land and farm seizures and expropriations and the large scale killing of farmers. “South African Government is now seizing land from white farmers.” @TuckerCarlson @FoxNews
Trump’s tweet, which was praised by former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, came just after Tucker Carlson dedicated a segment of his Fox News program to the bogus conspiracy, which has been promoted by white nationalists and members of the alt-right.
The conspiracy theory originally sprouted from a plan by the South African government to amend the country’s constitution to allow the government to seize land without compensation. The move was made to address historical inequalities in land ownership between black South Africans and the country’s white minority that have persisted since apartheid ended in 1994.