Anti-racism groups join S. Africa, protest tweet

President Donald Trump embraced a longtime white-nationalist talking point when he tweeted about alleged “large scale killing” of white farmers in South Africa, drawing praise Thursday from white nationalists and protests from anti-racism groups in the U.S.

“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,” Trump tweeted Wednesday night. Appearing to quote a Tucker Carlson segment on Fox News, Trump wrote the “South African Government is now seizing land from white farmers.”

South Africa’s government protested Trump’s remark, writing on Twitter that “South Africa totally rejects this narrow perception which only seeks to divide our nation and reminds us of our colonial past.” Trump’s tweet drew applause from white nationalists in the U.S., who have supported his presidency due to his tough stances on immigration and his past reluctance to denounce far-right figures.

“Thank you!” tweeted David Duke, a former Ku Klux Klan leader, later adding an image that said, “Stop White Genocide,” with the hashtag #SouthAfrica. Duke has praised Trump in the past, including after last year’s violent rally in Charlottesville, Va., when Trump struggled to criticize white nationalists who clashed with anti-racism protesters. Land reform is a complicated issue in South Africa, and violence is also a serious problem. But experts say white nationalists and other far-right figures in the U.S. and abroad have conflated the issues to push a message of “white genocide” happening in South Africa.

The claim had long percolated on the far-right before appearing on Fox News and in the White House, which is what made its sudden appearance on Trump’s Twitter feed striking to anti-racism groups.

“This is a white supremacist talking point,” the Anti-Defamation League said in a statement on Twitter. “For years they’ve campaigned to stop ‘white genocide’ in South Africa & made false claims about race-based killings of white South African farmers.”

For decades, South Africa has struggled to correct the legacy of apartheid.