The South African ambassador is no longer welcome in the United States, according to Rubio.

In a post on X, Rubio accused Ebrahim Rasool of hating the United States and President Donald Trump, saying the ambassador was "no longer welcome in our wonderful country." On Saturday, South Africa's president's office termed the decision "regrettable," adding that the government is dedicated to developing a mutually beneficial partnership with the United States.The unusual move by the US is the latest incident in escalating tensions between the two countries.

While lower-ranking diplomats are occasionally removed, it is extremely rare in the United States for a more senior official to be dismissed.

Rubio linked to an article from the right-wing outlet Breitbart on Friday, quoting some of Rasool's recent remarks made during an online lecture regarding the Trump administration.

Rasool stated during the event that Trump was "mobilizing a supremacism" and attempting to "present white suffering as a dog whistle" as the white population faced becoming a minority in the United States.

"We see that in the internal politics of the United States, the Maga movement as a response not merely to a supremacist urge, but to very clear statistics that reveals tremendous demographic trends in the United States, where the voting electorate is predicted to become 48% white," he stated.

He claimed that South Africa was being attacked because "we are the historical antidote to supremacism."

Rubio responded by calling Rasool "PERSONA NON GRATA," a Latin word meaning "unwelcome person."

Ties between the United States and South Africa have deteriorated since Trump assumed office.

An executive order issued last month, freezing US aid to South Africa, claimed "unjust racial discrimination" against white Afrikaners, who are mostly descended from Dutch immigrants who came in the 17th century.

It cites a new law, the Expropriation Act, which it argues targets Afrikaners by allowing the government to seize private land.

"As long as South Africa continues to support bad actors on the global stage and supports violent attacks on innocent disfavored minority farmers, the United States will suspend funding and assistance to the government," a White House statement said at the time.

According to South Africa's 2022 census, white people, including Afrikaners, accounted for 7.2% of the population. However, the South African government's 2018 land audit revealed that white farmers owned 72% of the country's individually held farms.

South Africa's government, led by the African National Congress (ANC), has previously stated that the US president's actions are the result of "a campaign of misinformation and propaganda aimed at distorting our magnificent nation."

It further stated that no land had been seized without compensation and that this would only occur in extraordinary circumstances, such as when land was required for public use and all other options for acquiring the land had been exhausted.

A White House fact sheet argues that the country "blatantly discriminates against ethnic minority offspring of colonial groups."

Rasool, who previously served as US ambassador from 2010 to 2015, was forced to leave his childhood home in Cape Town's District Six after the Apartheid regime labeled it a white region.

He would subsequently regard the eviction as a pivotal event in his youth that shaped his future.

Rasool was appointed Pretoria's ambassador to the United States again in 2024.

Unnamed South African government sources informed online news site Daily Maverick at the time that he was regarded to be well-positioned to deal with a Trump administration due to the experience and relationships he had made during his first stint as ambassador.