Trump Plans to Channel Refugee Funds to White South Africans
As Donald Trump tries to bar almost all refugees from entering the US, his administration wants to use federal funds reserved for at-risk refugee populations to facilitate an influx of white South Africans.

Donald Trump speaks as Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr looks on in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on April 18, 2025. (Mandel Ngan / AFP via Getty Images)
As President Donald Trump tries to bar almost all refugees from entering the country, his administration is planning to use federal funds reserved for sick, elderly, and at-risk refugee populations to facilitate an influx of white South Africans within days, according to a government source and an internal memo viewed by the Lever.
The first group of Dutch-descended Afrikaners is scheduled to arrive in the United States imminently, and they will be receiving emergency support from the federal Office of Refugee Resettlement, a division of the Department of Health and Human Services, according to the memo, which was signed by Health and Human Services secretary Robert F. Kennedy and Office of Refugee Resettlement assistant secretary Andrew Gradison.
The move follows Trump’s February executive order demanding humanitarian relief for Afrikaners. Trump booster Elon Musk — himself a South African immigrant — has said South Africa’s government was unfair and racist to white people.