CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — South Africa's new special envoy to the United States is already under scrutiny for calling U.S. President Donald Trump a racist, homophobic and narcissistic "right-winger" in a speech in 2020.
Mcebisi Jonas, a former deputy finance minister, was appointed Monday by President Cyril Ramaphosa as his representative to Washington, tasked with rebuilding South Africa's deteriorating relationship with the U.S. under Trump.
The Trump administration expelled the South African ambassador last month.
Trump has singled out South Africa, issuing an executive order in February suspending all U.S. funding to the country over what he claimed are its anti-white and anti-American policies.
South Africa's ambassador was expelled from the U.S. for saying during a webinar that the politics of Trump and the Make America Great Again movement were partly the result of a “supremacist instinct.”
The Trump administration called the ambassador, Ebrahim Rasool, a “race-baiting politician” who hated Trump. South Africa hasn't named a new ambassador.
The new South African envoy's speech criticizing Trump and his first term was delivered on Nov. 8, 2020, five days after the election where Joe Biden defeated Trump. His comments have been circulated in the media.
“Right now, the U.S. is undergoing a watershed moment, with Biden the certain winner in the presidential race against the racist, homophobic Donald Trump,” Jonas said. “How we got to a situation where a narcissistic right-winger took charge of the world's greatest economic and military powerhouse is something that we need to ponder over. It is something that all democracies need to ponder over.”
Jonas was delivering South Africa's annual Ahmed Kathrada Lecture, where public figures are invited to give a speech for the foundation of Kathrada, one of the anti-apartheid activists put on trial by the white minority government in the 1960s and imprisoned alongside Nelson Mandela.
Jonas' speech largely focused on inequality, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and promoting the ideas of globalism and international trade. “Hopefully the defeat of Trump will deal a blow to the deglobalization lobby,” he said.
There was no immediate comment from him or the government over those remarks. After he was appointed, Jonas said he would do his best to “promote a healthy working relationship” between the countries but was aware of the "difficulties that lie ahead considering recent global developments.”
South Africa has been a prime target for Trump's criticism.
He has falsely accused the South African government of allowing violent attacks on white minority farmers and seizing their land, claims that have been rejected by political parties across the spectrum and experts in South Africa.
A new land expropriation law does allow the government to expropriate some land without compensation as long as it's in the public interest. No land has been taken under it. But its passing led groups representing some of South Africa's white minority to lobby the Trump administration for help, saying their land was likely to be targeted.
Trump has also announced a program offering white South African farmers refugee status in the U.S.
AP Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africa
President Donald Trump gestures to the crowd as he departs after welcoming the 2025 College Football National Champions, the Ohio State University football team, during an event on the South Lawn of the White House, Monday, April 14, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
President Donald Trump on Thursday visits a U.S. base installation at the center of American involvement in the Middle East as he uses his four-day visit to Gulf states to reject the “interventionism” of America’s past in the region.
In other parts of the Middle East violence flared in the West Bank and Gaza, A hospital in southern Gaza says 54 people have been killed in overnight airstrikes on the city of Khan Younis.
with a pregnant Israeli woman killed even as the international rights group ,Human Rights Watch ,said that Israel’s plan to seize Gaza, remain in the territory and displace hundreds of thousands of people “inches closer to extermination.”
Trump plans to address troops at Qatar’s al-Udeid Air Base, which was a major staging ground during the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and supported the recent U.S. air campaign against Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis. The president has held up Gulf nations like Saudi Arabia and Qatar as models for economic development in a region plagued by conflict as he works to entice Iran to come to terms with his administration on a deal to curb its nuclear program.
The President also meets business leaders in Qatar and heads to Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates.
Al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar is the forward headquarters of the U.S. military’s Central Command. At the base Thursday, service members listened to a comedy act ahead of Trump’s appearance. A Qatari and American flag flanked a large banner reading: “PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH.”
A Qatari F-15 and an MQ-9 Reaper drone sat to the side of the stage.
Theo Vonn, an American comedian, did a stand up set that included making jokes about Qatar’s national dress for men, the white thobe, and everyone being named Mohammed.
“It’s like a Ku Klux sandsman,” he said.
He later made a joke about the U.S. Navy: “I’m not going to fly across the whole world just to be gay. I’m not in the Navy.” And another punch line included: “Where do you think the next 9/11 should happen?”
President Donald Trump kept up pressure Thursday on Iran, warning Tehran that a deal over its nuclear program or potentially airstrikes are the only two solutions to the diplomatic impasse.
Speaking in Qatar before business leaders, Trump said: “We’d like to see if we could solve the Iran problem in an intelligent way, as opposed to a brutal way. There’s only two: intelligent and brutal. Those are the two alternatives.”
Trump also said that Qatar’s ruling emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, had been pushing for diplomatic deal over Iran’s nuclear program. Qatar shares a massive offshore oil and gas field that’s crucial to its wealth with Iran.
“I said last night that Iran is very lucky to have the emir because he’s actually fighting for them. He doesn’t want us to do a vicious blow to Iran,” Trump said. “He says, ‘You can make a deal. You can make a deal.’ He’s really fighting. And I really mean this: I think that Iran should say a big thank you to the emir.”
At another point, Trump mused: “In the case of Iran, they make a good drone.”
President Donald Trump has suggested that India has offered to drop tariffs on U.S. goods to zero, something not immediately acknowledged by New Delhi.
Trump made the comments during a business roundtable in Doha, Qatar, on his Mideast tour, first discussing Apple’s plans to build manufacturing plants for its iPhone there.
“It’s very hard to sell into India and and they’ve offered us a deal with what basically they’re willing to literally charge us no tariff,” Trump said. India is a close partner of the U.S. and is part of the Quad, which is made up of the U.S., India, Japan and Australia, and is seen as a counterbalance to China’s expansion in the region
U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday that he didn’t think Russian President Vladimir Putin would go to talks in Turkey with Ukraine if he wasn’t there.
Trump made the remarks at a business roundtable in Qatar on his Mideast trip.
“I didn’t think it was possible for Putin to go if I’m not there,” Trump said.
Trump had suggested he could travel there for the talks if Putin was going. On Thursday, however, Trump said: “I actually said, why would he go if I’m not going? Because I wasn’t going to go. I wasn’t planning to go. I would go, but I wasn’t planning to go. And I said, I don’t think he’s going to go if I don’t go.”
Trump sat with GE Aerospace’s Larry Culp and Boeing Co.’s Kelly Ortberg on either side of him on Thursday. Both praised Trump for his support for the Qatar Airways order for Boeing aircraft. Ortberg called it one of the largest orders Boeing has ever had.
A hospital in southern Gaza says 54 people have been killed in overnight airstrikes on the city of Khan Younis.
An Associated Press cameraman in Khan Younis counted 10 airstrikes on the city overnight into Thursday, and saw numerous bodies taken to the morgue in the city’s Nasser Hospital. Some bodies arrived in pieces, with some body bags containing the remains of multiple people. The hospital’s morgue confirmed 54 people had been killed.
It was the second night of heavy bombing, after airstrikes Wednesday on northern and southern Gaza killed at least 70 people, including almost two dozen children.
The strikes come as U.S. President Donald Trump visits the Middle East, visiting Gulf states but not Israel. There had been widespread hope that Trump’s regional visit could usher in a ceasefire deal or renewal of humanitarian aid to Gaza. An Israeli blockade of the territory is now in its third month.
Qatar’s satellite news channel Al Jazeera long has been a powerful force in the Middle East, often taking editorial positions at odds with America’s interests in the region during the wars that followed the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks by al-Qaida.
But during President Donald Trump’s visit to the Gulf Arab nation this week, state-funded Al Jazeera muted its typical critiques of American foreign policy.
The channel, which broadcasts in Arabic and English, broadly covered Trump’s visit in a straightforward manner, highlighting it was the first-ever trip to Qatar by a sitting American leader. Mentions of the Israel-Hamas war, which Al Jazeera often has criticized America over for its military support to Israel, did not include any critiques of U.S. policy. Instead, journalists highlighted Qatar’s role as a mediator in the war and aired comments by Qatar’s ruler, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, calling for a ceasefire.
After a morning meeting with top U.S. and Qatari officials and American defense and aerospace business leaders, Trump heads to Al-Udeid Air Base, a U.S. installation at the center of American involvement in the Middle East. There, he will address troops and is expected to view a demonstration of American air capability.
The president then travels to the United Arab Emirates, the final leg of his first major foreign trip. He will head first to the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque and then to a state visit hosted at Abu Dhabi’s Qasr al-Watan palace.
The international rights group said that Israel’s plan to seize Gaza, remain in the territory and displace hundreds of thousands of people “inches closer to extermination.”
It called on the international community to speak out against the plan. It said that the new plans, coupled with the “systematic destruction” of civilian infrastructure and the block on all imports into Gaza, were cause for signatories to the Genocide Convention to act to prevent Israel’s moves. It said states should halt weapons transfers to Israel and enforce international arrest warrants against Israel’s prime minister and former defense minister, as well as review their bilateral agreements with the country.
Israel vehemently denies accusations that it is committing genocide in Gaza.
The group also called on Hamas to free the 58 hostages it still holds in Gaza, 23 of whom are believed to be alive.
A pregnant Israeli woman has died after she was shot and critically wounded in a shooting attack in the occupied West Bank, a hospital said Thursday.
Beilinson Hospital said that doctors succeeded in saving her unborn baby, who was in serious but stable condition after being delivered by caesarean section.
The Israeli military said a Palestinian assailant opened fire on a vehicle late Wednesday, wounded two civilians. Soldiers launched a search for the attacker.
It’s the latest violence in the Palestinian territory, where the Israeli military has launched a major operation that it says is meant to crack down on militancy. The operation has displaced tens of thousands of people.
Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank in months of violence that surged there after the start of the war in Gaza.
Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani welcomes President Donald Trump during an official welcoming ceremony at the Amiri Diwan in Doha, Qatar, Wednesday, May 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
