On Friday, US President Donald Trump signed a frozen assistance on an executive order for South Africa, citing the last land confiscation law that the country approved that the American leader and his allies claim to distinguish against white farmers.

But the aid bloc is only the culmination of a series of pressure points between the United States and South Africa, which was accumulating even during the administration of former President Joe Biden, and now exploded during the Trump era.

We follow the slide in the bilateral relations between the two countries and explore what they risk each of them to lose if the relationships are more vortex.

What did Trump said while banning South Africa help?

On February 2, Trump posted on the social truth platform, saying, “South Africa is the confiscation of the Earth, and certain groups of people are treated very badly.

“The United States will not defend it, and we will act,” he wrote. “Also, I will cut all future funding to South Africa until the full investigation is completed!”

The Trump’s executive order on February 7 claimed that the confiscation law, which was passed in December, enables “the South African government to seize agricultural property of ethnic minorities without compensation.”

The matter said: “This law follows an countless number of government policies designed to dismantle equal opportunities in employment, education and business, hateful rhetoric and government governments that feed the inconsistent violence against land owners who are not concerned.”

The next day, these comments doubled while addressing journalists. He said: “Folding things happen in South Africa.”

In the executive matter, the United States also offered the resettlement of the South Africa Africaner, which was a proposal to African groups rejectedIncluding those who pressed the United States and Trump specifically against the South African government.

Did Trump’s aides also attacked South Africa?

From US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to the amount of South African millionaire and Trump’s adviser to Elon Musk, the outlines against South Africa were not not softening since the comments of the first US President.

A day after Trump’s initial comments, when South African President Cyril Ramavusa defended the Land Law on X, Musk answered – the richest man in the world: “Why do you have public racist laws?”

On Wednesday, Rubio announced on X that he “will not attend the G20 summit in Johannesburg. South Africa does very bad things. Confiscation of private ownership.”

South Africa, which bears the rotating presidency of the cover of 20 from 20 large economies, is hosting a meeting of the group’s foreign ministers from February 20 to 21.

What is the truth in the land law?

As the island Explanation of Qanita Hunter in this pieceThe South African government insisted that there is no forced confiscation of the Earth, and that any confiscation will take place “constitutionally legal”.

Experts criticized attempts to suggest that the South African law is similar in any way Zimbabwe’s coercive confiscation of lands that belong to white farmers since 2000s.

South Africa law prohibits arbitrary acquisition of land and provides compensation in most cases. It also requires the authorities to first try to reach a reasonable agreement with the landowner, and only fail anywhere the earth may be calculated.

Land can only be calculated for public purposes – such as building schools, hospitals, highways – or for the public interest, which include land reform. After more than three decades from the end of the apartheid, the White Minority Community in South Africa – which is 7 percent of the population – controls more than 70 percent of the country’s lands.

However, the white farmers in South Africa have always been Trump’s obsession.

In 2018, during his first term in office, Trump claimed that South Africa witnessed “Wide -ranging killings” for white farmers. There is no evidence to support this claim, and South Africa said at the time that Trump had been misleading.

But while Trump’s attacks on South Africa are in line with the narration of the white victim on which the political movement of the US president has long been relied on, tensions between nations did not fade in the four years in which Biden was president.

In fact, they rose.

Did the South Africa site in Israel affect our relations?

In early 2024, the South African Minister of Africa flew at the time, Nalidy Bandor, to the United States on the crisis management trip.

The US Congress was discussing a bill to punish South Africa for its strong criticism of the brutal Israeli war on Gaza, which has now killed more than 61,000 people, including many missing persons who are now assumed dead.

In December 2023, South Africa transferred Israel to the International Court of Justice in The Hague, accusing it of being linked to the genocide in Gaza. Since then, the International Court of Justice has issued temporary orders against Israel, while many countries have joined the South African issue.

The International Court of Justice has not yet issued its final ruling, but some members of Congress in the United States decided that South Africa needed to pay for a price.

The Law on Reviewing Bilateral Relations in the United States and the South, which was presented in the US House of Representatives about a year ago on February 6, 2024, accused South Africa of “bias with malicious actors, including Hamas, a specific foreign terrorist organization and the United States and an Iranian regime agency” .

In Washington, Bandor tried to meet members of Congress and spoke to intellectual tanks to clarify the roots of the apartheid era of South Africa’s opposition to Israel’s policies against Palestine, and the war of genocide in Gaza.

This bill has not yet passed, but Trump is in his executive and Rubio in his recent comments, both Israel’s policy in South Africa indicated a reason for Washington’s fatigue.

“South Africa has taken aggressive positions towards the United States and its allies, including accusing Israel, not Hamas, from the genocide in the International Court of Justice, and reactivating its relations with Iran to develop commercial, military and nuclear arrangements.” The matter said.

But what are the “aggressive measures” that South Africa has taken against the United States? Rubio also accused South Africa of “anti -America.” What was he talking about?

The 2024 Bill in Congress offers a glimpse of the deeper strategic tension that has been shaded for relations for a period of time.

Will South Africa choose Russia and China for the United States?

The 2024 South African Bill is accused of following “closer relations with the People’s Republic of China (” PRC “and the Russian Union.

In May 2023, the American ambassador to South Africa accused the country of providing weapons to Russia with its war against Ukraine through a cargo ship that secretly at a naval base near Cape Town.

and investigation By the government of South Africa conclude In September 2023, “any evidence” was found on the allegations that South Africa had made weapons to Russia. Ramavusa said that the prosecution “had a more harmful effect on our currency, economy and our situation in the world; in fact, our image has been distorted.”

Earlier that year, in February 2023, South Africa, Russia and China Joint military exercises were held in the Indian Ocean. The United States responded by saying it was “worried”.

Pretoria was keen to balance relations between Russia and China, on the one hand, and the United States and its allies, on the other hand.

Despite the issue of the International Court of Justice, South Africa continues to maintain strong trade relations with Israel: for some periods during the past year, South Africa was the largest coal supplier to Israel, even when the Ramavusa government faced internal accusations of hypocrisy.

Meanwhile, South Africa persuaded Russian President Vladimir Putin not to attend the BRICS Summit, which hosted it last year. South Africa is a member of the International Criminal Court, which issued an arrest warrant against Putin on the war in Ukraine. Members of the International Criminal Court are expected to arrest individuals who have orders against them.

What is the exhibition if the relationships decline?

this Explanation of the island from 2024 He pointed out that South Africa is the largest trading partner in the United States in Africa, with a value of $ 9.3 billion from US exports to South Africa in 2022. About 600 American companies operate in the country.

South Africa is also a decisive strategic partner for the United States-a democratic party in an area where many post-liberation movements have turned into tyranny.

There is a lot at the stake for South Africa as well.

Although China is the largest commercial partner in the far part of South Africa, the United States is the fourth largest exporter of its imports-after China, Germany and India-the second largest destination for its exports, after China, according to the OEC.

South Africa benefits from the African Growth and Opportunities Law, an American law approved by Congress in 2000, which grants many sub -Saharan countries, including South Africa, and is exempt from customs duties for American markets for 1,800 products. South Africa’s export data to the United States in 2022 amounted to $ 11 billion.

The threat of South Africa loses this situation in the shadow of Awaya now on the relationship, as Trump takes on the trade relations that are believed to be unfair to the United States.