President Trump slammed by Anti-Defamation League for echoing white-supremacist claims

Donald Trump, taking his cue from a Tucker Carlson segment on Fox News, said Wednesday that he has asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to study South Africa’s stance on land reform and the “large scale killing of farmers.”

Here’s his tweet:

Trump was referring to the South African government’s efforts to continue addressing racial inequalities in the aftermath of Apartheid, including a prospective constitutional change to allow expropriation of land without compensation. According to Agri SA, whites make up only 8% of South Africa’s population and own 73% of agricultural land.

The Anti-Defamation League has a real problem with his stance:

‘It is extremely disturbing that the President of the United States echoed a longstanding and false white supremacist claim that South Africa’s white farmers are targets of large-scale, racially-motivated killings by South Africa’s black majority. White supremacists in the United States have made such claims for years.’

The group went on cite examples of U.S. hate groups and their allegations of white genocide in the country.

“We would hope that the president would try to understand the facts and realities of the situation in South Africa, rather than repeat disturbing, racially divisive talking points used most frequently by white supremacists,” the ADL concluded in its statement.

The South African government also took exception to Trump’s tweet, firing back with a couple of tweets of its own: