Another area identified by Mr Trump is property rights. In a move that America’s president seems to have conflated with actual land seizures, on January 23rd Cyril Ramaphosa, his South African counterpart, signed the Expropriation Act, which gives the state new powers to expropriate property in the “public interest”.

Trump directed U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to take steps to "prioritize humanitarian relief," which includes the admission and resettlement of Afrikaners through the United States Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) in Friday's executive order.

Trump’s freeze on aid to South Africa caps years of growing tension over everything from Russia and China to Israel.