This story appeared in The Logoff, a daily newsletter that helps you stay informed about the Trump administration without letting political news take over your life. Subscribe here.
Welcome to The Logoff: Donald Trump is extending an unprecedentedly warm welcome to white South Africans — and virtually no one else.
What’s happening? The core of this story — the Trump administration’s decision to embrace white South Africans, or Afrikaners, who claim refugee status and to exclude refugees from other countries, who often face far worse circumstances — is not new. What is new is a pair of New York Times stories published on Tuesday, detailing exactly how far the administration is going in pursuit of that objective, and who it’s letting in.
According to the Times, the US is preparing to hand out new “welcome bags” to Afrikaners arriving in the US that will include an Android tablet, an American flag, copies of America’s founding documents, and literature that it describes as “downplay[ing] the role of slavery in the country’s founding, and…accusing South Africa’s government of ‘favoring the Black population.’” (You can read the full NYT story with a gift link here.)
As the Times points out, such welcome bags are not normal for refugees entering the US.
What’s the context? Trump, in his second term, has repeatedly championed immigration by white South Africans. In 2025, he shut down refugee admissions from the rest of the world while ushering in dozens of Afrikaners, citing “genocide.” He later set the US refugee cap at 7,500 people — mostly white South Africans — and in May, raised it by 10,000 to allow in yet more Afrikaners.
South Africa does have a problem with violence, but there is no evidence Afrikaners — and specifically white farmers — are being targeted because of their skin color, as Trump has often suggested. Notably, black South Africans, who also face violence, are not being offered the same access to refugee status in the US.
The idea of a “genocide” targeting white South Africans has a long and ugly history on the right, where it began as a white nationalist conspiracy theory.
And with that, it’s time to log off…
Here’s a fun story from Wired about the physics behind a soccer ball curving through the air, plus one cool thing from the World Cup: Why Scottish fans have been redecorating Boston statues with traffic cones.
Thanks for reading, have a great evening, and we’ll see you back here tomorrow!
