US senator Jeanne Shaheen, the most senior Democrat on the Senate foreign relations committee, called the move “baffling”, saying it’s clearly “politically motivated and an effort to rewrite history”.

What’s behind the decision?

He was not favouring Afrikaners because they are white, Trump said, adding their race “makes no difference to me”.

How has South Africa reacted?

Speaking at a conference in Ivory Coast, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said the white Afrikaners had supposedly left because they were opposed to policies aimed at addressing racial inequality persisting since apartheid, or white minority rule, ended three decades ago.

Less than 10 per cent of white South Africans are out of work, compared with more than a third of their black counterparts.

Where did the discrimination claim emerge from?

Out of 26,000 murders in South Africa last year, 44 were linked to farming communities, according to police statistics. Crime researchers say the overwhelming majority of murder victims are black.

What is the state of US-South Africa relations?