Revealed: Trump once did the same thing he accuses South Africa’s president of

21 May

Donald Trump gestures at Turning Point USA's AmericaFest in Phoenix, Arizona, U.S., December 22, 2024. REUTERS/Cheney Orr/File Photo

During his Oval Office meeting with South Africa President Cyril Ramasphosa on Wednesday, President Donald Trump made the unfounded claim that South Africa was “confiscating land” as he cut foreign aid to the country.

Ironically, Trump authorized government land seizures himself during his term to advance construction of the United States-Mexico border wall — though through a different legal framework than South Africa’s, the New York Times reported Wednesday.

Trump’s allegations of discrimination against white farmers in South Africa stem from a law signed earlier this year by Ramaphosa, which permits the government to take privately owned land without compensation if it's deemed to serve the public good. Still, the law allows for court oversight, which means landowners can legally contest any expropriation.

The Times report noted that Trump told his aides in 2019 to "take the land" in Texas. The president asked them to expedite construction instead of addressing the landowners' concerns.

By the close of Trump’s first term, his administration had initiated over 110 legal actions against Texas landowners in an effort to obtain land for the construction of the border wall, per the report.

Reporter Zolan Kanno-Youngs further wrote in the Times report: "What Ramaphosa did not say during the extraordinary confrontation was that Trump himself has used that power. And that’s a story I happen to know well. Six years ago, I found myself face to face with a white farmer preparing for the government to take his land."

"This did not happen in South Africa. It was in South Texas, and it was because of Trump," he continued.

"And it’s a reminder of how a president who has railed against the state’s power to seize land overseas has long been quick to embrace similar tools at home, both as a developer and then in the White House," Kanno-Youngs said.

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