One of Trump’s Afrikaner “Refugees” Is Quite the Antisemite

The Trump administration’s new policy of denying immigration benefits to people expressing antisemitic views apparently doesn’t apply to white South Africans.

One of the Afrikaner “refugees” who has taken up President Trump’s offer for white South Africans to immigrate to the United States to flee a nonexistent genocide has a history of posting antisemitic content on social media. Charl Kleinhaus, who claims to be a former farmer, has called Jewish people “untrustworthy” and “dangerous.”

Kleinhaus also responded to a post on X about clashes in Jerusalem between Palestinians and Israelis with a link to a video and the caption “Jews spitting on Christians!” But if one were to think that Kleinhaus opposes Israel, that would be a mistake. After Hamas’s October 7 attacks on Israel, he made several posts praising the country and offering it his total support.

Kleinhaus’s claims to be a farmer are also suspect, as his X account mentions his ownership of a granite mine, which he put up for sale last month. The Bulwark points out that Kleinhaus’s X profile is otherwise full of pro-Christian, pro-Trump, and pro-MAGA content.

But the antisemitic posts seem to show a contradiction in the White House’s new policy, as outlined by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, of denying immigrants with antisemitic views into the U.S. because their presence would undermine “U.S. policy to combat anti-Semitism around the world and in the United States, in addition to efforts to protect Jewish students from harassment and violence in the United States.”

That policy was used to detain Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil and strip him of his permanent residency status in March. Why is Kleinhaus seemingly being held to a different standard? Is it because Khalil is of Palestinian origin, while Kleinhaus is a white South African? Or is it because despite openly expressing prejudice against Jewish people, Kleinhaus also professes love for Israel? Either way, there’s clearly racism at the root of it.