Trump administration says South African ambassador has to leave the US by Friday

WASHINGTON — The State Department says South Africa’s ambassador to the United States, who was declared “persona non grata” last week, has until Friday to leave the country.

After Secretary of State Marco Rubio determined that Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool was no longer welcome in the U.S. and posted his decision Friday on social media, South African embassy staff were summoned to the State Department and given a formal diplomatic note explaining the decision, the department said.

“We made the embassy aware that Ambassador Rasool has been found unacceptable by the United States to be a representative of his country,” the State Department said.

It said Rasool’s diplomatic privileges and immunities expired Monday and that he would be required to leave the United States by Friday. It was not clear if he was in the U.S. now.

Rubio announced his decision in a post on X as he was flying back to the United States from a Group of 7 foreign ministers meeting in Canada. In it, he accused Rasool of being a “race-baiting politician” who hates President Donald Trump.

His post linked to a story by the conservative Breitbart news site about a talk Rasool gave earlier Friday in Johannesburg as part of a South African think tank’s webinar. Rasool spoke about actions taken by the Trump administration in the context of a United States where white people soon would no longer be in the majority.

Rasool was speaking by videoconference, and it was not clear if he was in South Africa, the United States or elsewhere.

It is highly unusual for the U.S. to expel a foreign ambassador, although lower-ranking diplomats are more frequently targeted with persona non grata status.

Rubio’s decision was the latest Trump administration move targeting South Africa. Trump signed an executive order last month halting funding to the country. It criticized the Black-led South African government on multiple fronts, saying it is pursuing anti-white policies at home and supporting “bad actors” in the world like the Palestinian militant group Hamas and Iran.

A statement last week from the office of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said it had “noted the regrettable expulsion” of Rasool and called on its diplomatic officials “to maintain the established diplomatic decorum in their engagement with the matter.”

“South Africa remains committed to building a mutually beneficial relationship with the United States of America,” the statement said.