US President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with President of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa in the Oval Office of the White House on Wednesday May 21, 2025. Even as President Donald Trump has attempted to block thousands of refugees from places like Afghanistan, Syria and Sudan from entering the US, he’s made a unique and pointed exception for one particular group: Afrikaners. Last week, Trump welcomed 59 Afrikaners to the US as refugees, alleging that they’d suffered racial persecution in their home country, a claim the South African government has vehemently denied. The group — one of two white minorities in South Africa — are descended primarily from Dutch colonists and are known for their role in establishing apartheid, a system of segregation that oppressed Black South Africans for decades.Tr