Trump’s planned welcome bags for Afrikaner refugees are astonishing

When white South African refugees enter the United States in the coming weeks, they reportedly can expect a special treat: a gift bag containing an Android tablet, copies of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence, and an American flag. Oh, and one more perk: literature that argues white people in South Africa and the U.S. are victims of discrimination — and that the U.S. Civil Rights Movement was misguided. 

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That’s the plan that’s being finalized in the Trump administration, according to a new story from The New York Times, which cites government documents and an official familiar with the matter, and observes that welcome gifts of this kind are “unusual.” These welcome bags are a brazen expression of white nationalism. And remarkably, they represent the White House doing exactly what MAGA conspiracy theorists love to (ludicrously) accuse the left of trying to do: Use immigration policy to boost its political fortunes.

According to the Times, the bags are expected to include a letter that reads, “The Trump administration understands America’s immigration system must put the U.S. citizen first, and only welcome in those who will assimilate into the American way of life and preserve our borders, language, culture, traditions and ideals.” 

The president and his administration have long made it clear that Afrikaners are virtually the only people who fit the White House’s criteria. At a Turning Point USA event in April, Trump boasted, “We suspended all refugee resettlement — except for persecuted South Africans.” And Trump has said that the people in South Africa being “persecuted” are Afrikaners — basing his claim on white nationalist disinformation that a “white genocide” is being perpetrated in South Africa.

Singling out this population, amid all the people enduring wars and serious persecution around the world, was in and of itself a white nationalist salvo. But the letter, combined with other texts and booklets planned for the bag, take it to another level.