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The indefatigable Bruce Springsteen just launched his aptly bittersweet Land of Hope & Dreams Tour in England, where he preceded three songs in turn with eloquent, furious critiques of the "weird, strange and dangerous shit going on in my home, the America I love" at the hands of "an unfit president and a rogue government." Unsurprisingly, the sick, vile man-child he cited then attacked and threatened him; stirringly, The Boss just said it all again the next night, darkly reiterating, "This is happening now."
Springsteen and his longtime E Street Band openedthe tour last week with the first of three shows in Manchester at the massive Co-op Live; they plan to perform across the U.K., France, Spain, Germany and Italy through early July. At his first show, he appeared in the dark to "call upon the righteous power of art, of music, of rock and roll in dangerous times." Before kicking into Land of Hope and Dreams, he delivered an impassioned screed lamenting, "In my home, in the America I love, the America I've written about (is) currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration." The crowd roared. "Tonight, we ask all who believe in democracy and the best of our American experiment to rise with us, raise your voices against authoritarianism, and let freedom ring."
His next spoken missive came before House of a Thousand Guitars. "The last check, the last check on power after the checks and balances of government have failed are the people, you and me," he proclaimed. "It’s in the union of people around a common set of values now that’s all that stands between a democracy and authoritarianism. At the end of the day, all we’ve got is each other." A few songs later, he stopped again before the somber, symbolic, post-9/11 My City of Ruins to detail some of what we're all seeing: "They are persecuting people for using their right to free speech...The richest men (are) abandoning the world’s poorest children to sickness and death...They're (inflicting) pain (on) American workers, rolling back historic civil rights legislation...siding with dictators, defunding universities, removing ...residents off American streets and without due process of law are deporting them to foreign detention centers." After each atrocity, he testified, "This is happening now."
Late that night, the nasty asshole and childish cretin at the helm of those horrors had an(other) online meltdown, whining "Highly Overrated Bruce Springsteen, not a talented guy" - who's won 20 Grammys, an Oscar, two Golden Globes, a Tony, was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and is internationally beloved and respected as one of the greatest artists and humans of all time - had gone to "a Foreign Country to speak badly about the President of the United States (sic.)" "Never liked him, never liked his music, or his Radical Left Politics," he sneered of "just a pushy, obnoxious JERK...dumb as a rock" - massive pot/kettle moment here - who "ought to KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT until he gets back into the Country...Then we’ll all see how it goes for him!”
Because we live in a surreal, too-awful-to-fathom timeline, he then added the deeply insane insult that Springsteen - who remains impossibly fit and handsome at 75, three years younger than the grotesquerie spewing this shit - is a "dried out ‘prune’ of a rocker (his skin is all atrophied!)." What the fuck, said the world. Sample with image: "Did I hear some really old dude accused Springsteen of looking like a prune?" Ever oblivious, MAGA nitwits piled on. "Springsteen is DONE!! Just Burned all his records tapes and everything else about him I had!!" railed one idiot who didn't seem to realize he'd already spent his money. A "Duane"who def deserves his name suggested attendees "consider taking legal action" for fraud cause they expected a concert and got a "political event." Boycotts were urged for Springsteen's "anti-American rhetoric and treasonous actions and hate speech." One response: "At first I thought this was brilliant satire, but it turns out you are just a moron." Also: "Sit the fuck down and shut the fuck up."
Many more patriotic fans of the Boss celebrated his rectitude. "This is what standing for America looks like," wrote one. "Thank you @springsteen." After the Turgid One also randomly slammed Taylor Swift - don't ask - the American Federation of Musicians wrote they stood in solidarity with both Bruce - Local 47 in L.A.- and Swift - Local 257 in Nashville - as "not just brilliant musicians (but) role models and inspirations to millions of people across the world." Neil Young chimed in as a dual Canada/U.S. citizen to thank Bruce "for speaking so eloquently and truthfully on behalf of the American people. We are with you my old friend. Your great songs of America ring true as you sing them to Europe and the world!”
- YouTubewww.youtube.com
Alas, the madness wasn't done; these days, it never is. On Saturday, a couple of nights after the little whiner's ugly hissy fit, Springsteen held his second show in Manchester. To nobody's surprise - mensches gonna mensch - he again railed against the unending abuses of "an unfit president and a rogue government." "Things are happening right now that are altering the very nature of our country’s democracy," he asserted, "and they’re too important to ignore.” Again, he detailed, decried, denounced them: Shutting down free speech and dissent, abandoning the world's poor and sick, punishing workers, pressuring universities, rolling back civil rights, disappearances off the street without due process. Again, he emphasized, "This is happening now."
At 1:34 a.m., the mad child king started ranting online. "HOW MUCH DID KAMALA HARRIS PAY BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN FOR HIS POOR PERFORMANCE DURING HER CAMPAIGN FOR PRESIDENT?" he screeched. "ISN’T THAT A MAJOR AND ILLEGAL CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTION? WHAT ABOUT BEYONCÉ? HOW MUCH WENT TO OPRAH, AND BONO??? I am going to call for a major investigation into this matter." Also, they tried to "build up her sparse crowds," "IT’S NOT LEGAL!," "these unpatriotic 'entertainers,'" and, "Thank you for your attention to this matter!!!” At 9:11 a.m. he was back at it, posting 33 times: Dems paid Beyoncé "millions of Dollars," "ILLEGAL ELECTION SCAM AT THE HIGHEST LEVEL!", "A LOT OF EXPLAINING TO DO!!!"
He veered, raved, reviled. He shared a call for Obama to face "PUBLIC MILITARY TRIBUNALS." He reposted a bunch of freakish, AI-generated, Trump-centric art - "Slayer of the Deep State" - and videos of him rocking out to Don't Stop Believin' that made people who saw them want to drink or at least inject bleach. Comments: "What the actual fuck," "God save us please," and from George Conway, "It’s still hard for me to believe that after so many years of deranged posts like this, we’ve still never had a serious national conversation about this man’s mental health." Meanwhile, over at Fox News, the loyal bobbleheads somehow still gushed and prattled about how "gifted" their dear leader is: "The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears."
But Springsteen kept talking; he even talked about hope. "We'll survive this moment," he said. "I have hope, because I believe in the truth of what great American writer James Baldwin said: 'In this world, there isn’t as much humanity as one would like, but there’s enough.' So let’s pray." Again, he ended the concert with Dylan's Chimes of Freedom. He summoned the chimes of freedom flashing "for the warriors whose strength is not to fight/for the refugees on the unarmed road of flight," for the rebel, the luckless, the abandoned and forsaked, the "searching ones on their speechless, seeking trail, each "unharmful, gentle soul misplaced inside a jail." Again, he closed with, "Take this home with you." Amidst so much grim lunacy, we're trying.
Defenders of climate and the rule of law blasted the Trump administration on Friday for using what one consumer campaigner called a "phony" emergency to wage lawfare against states trying to hold Big Oil financially accountable for the planetary crisis.
On Thursday, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) filed complaints against New York and Vermont over their climate superfund laws, which empower states to seek financial compensation from fossil fuel companies to help cover the costs of climate mitigation. The burning of fossil fuels is the main driver of human-caused global heating.
Separately, the DOJ also sued Hawaii and Michigan "to prevent each state from suing fossil fuel companies in state court to seek damages for alleged climate change harms."
"The use of the United States Department of Justice to fight on behalf of the fossil fuel industry is deeply disturbing."
Hours later, Hawaii became the 10th state to sue Big Oil for lying about the climate damage caused by fossil fuels. The Aloha State's lawsuit targets ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell, BP, and other corporations for their "decadeslong campaign of deception to discredit the scientific consensus on climate change" and sow public doubt about the existence and main cause of the crisis.
"The federal lawsuit filed by the Justice Department attempts to block Hawaii from holding the fossil fuel industry responsible for deceptive conduct that caused climate change damage," Hawaii Attorney General Anne E. Lopez said. "The use of the United States Department of Justice to fight on behalf of the fossil fuel industry is deeply disturbing and is a direct attack on Hawaii's rights as a sovereign state."
The DOJ on Thursday cited President Donald Trump's April 8 executive order, " Protecting American Energy From State Overreach," which affirms the president's commitment "to unleashing American energy, especially through the removal of all illegitimate impediments to the identification, development, siting, production, investment in, or use of domestic energy resources—particularly oil, natural gas, coal, hydropower, geothermal, biofuel, critical mineral, and nuclear energy resources."
Trump also signed a day-one edict declaring a "national energy emergency" in service of his campaign pledge to "drill, baby, drill" for climate-heating fossil fuels. The "emergency" has been invoked to fast-track fossil fuel permits, including for extraction projects on public lands.
Acting Assistant Attorney General Adam Gustafson of the DOJ's Environment and Natural Resources Division said in a statement Thursday, "When states seek to regulate energy beyond their constitutional or statutory authority, they harm the country's ability to produce energy and they aid our adversaries."
"The department's filings seek to protect Americans from unlawful state overreach that would threaten energy independence critical to the well-being and security of all Americans," Gustafson added.
Robert Weissman, co-president of the consumer advocacy watchdog Public Citizen, on Friday accused the Trump administration of "using a phony energy emergency declaration to illegally attack state climate and clean energy laws."
"There is no energy emergency, and Trump's stated reasoning for it is as much a scam as every other pathetic con and hustle this president attempts," Weissman continued. "Fake constitutional claims based on a fake emergency cannot and will not displace sensible and long overdue state efforts to hold dirty energy corporations accountable."
"These corporations have imposed massive costs on society through their deceptive denial of the realities of climate change, and through rushing us toward climate catastrophe," he added. "It's good policy, common sense, and completely within state authority, for states to hold these corporations accountable."
U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday unveiled the framework of a trade deal with the United Kingdom that was extremely light on details despite being billed as a "full and comprehensive agreement," leading critics to describe the fanfare surrounding the announcement as a cynical photo op for both sides.
In a statement, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer touted the deal as "historic" while acknowledging that it is incomplete. Trump insisted the deal is "maxed out," though he told reporters in the Oval Office that "the final details are being written up in the coming weeks."
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins, meanwhile, described the agreement as one "in concept," drawing comparisons to Trump's widely derided statement on the campaign trail that he had a "concept of a plan" on healthcare.
Melinda St. Louis, Global Trade Watch director at Public Citizen, said Thursday that "Trump may have enjoyed having his ego stroked by Starmer and [U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard] Lutnick fawning over him for 'closing' a deal—one that is obviously not actually done—but his con on American workers continues."
"The American and British people need to see whatever text there is or is developed in ongoing talks—and no deal should be approved or go into effect without going through proper on-the-record public comment processes and congressional oversight," said St. Louis. "We need to know, for instance, when they claim to address 'non-tariff barriers,' just what giveaways for Big Tech may be inserted on behalf of Elon Musk and Trump's other tech-bro billionaire buddies, given that he waved around Big Tech's wish list when he announced the tariffs."
"With claims of dozens more 'deals' in progress," St. Louis added, "Congress must act swiftly to demand transparency and accountability in any trade deal before Trump and his team sell off our country for parts behind closed doors."
According to summaries released by the Trump White House and U.K. government, the bilateral trade framework would leave in place the 10% tariff rate that Trump has applied to all imports to the U.S. while providing targeted tariff relief for the British auto, steel, and aluminum industries.
The White House also said, without providing specific details, that the deal would "significantly expand U.S. market access in the U.K., creating a $5 billion opportunity for new exports for U.S. farmers, ranchers, and producers."
The U.K. is the first country to announce an agreement in principle with Trump since he unilaterally imposed tariffs on imports to the U.S. last month, invoking emergency authority. The U.S. ran a trade surplus with the U.K. last year, and experts questioned the extent to which the terms of the agreement broadly outlined Thursday would change the trade dynamic between the two countries.
"At this point the goal of policy seems to be to goose the market for the next few days, with no long-term plan," suggested economist Paul Krugman.
Around the world, stocks rose in response to the U.S.-U.K. announcement.
Nick Dearden, director of the U.K.-based advocacy group Global Justice Now, said that Thursday's events were primarily "about appeasing Trump"—but cautioned that worse could be coming in the near future.
"While there are limited tariff reductions, we remain in a much worse position than we were six months ago," Dearden argued. "What's more, Trump could impose new tariffs at any time because Starmer has proven to him that his threats work: caving in to a bully is not something to be celebrated. Today's press conference also fires the starting gun on a genuinely scary, fuller trade deal, and there are strong indications our rights, standards, and protections will be up for grabs in that larger agreement."
"Unless we stand up to this deal, the British public will pay a very high price for Starmer's friendship with Donald Trump," Dearden added.
In a blog post published ahead of Thursday's announcement, Dearden warned that the new framework could set the stage for a deal that locks the U.K. "into policies that favor the unchecked growth of tech monopolies: deregulated AI, increased corporate access to NHS data, and restrictions on our ability to rein in Silicon Valley giants."
"Worse may be coming unless we stop treating trade negotiations as a matter of royal prerogative," wrote Dearden. "We need a modern, democratic process for international agreements—transparent, accountable, and inclusive. But Starmer has shown that such reform won't be gifted by those in power. It must be demanded."
At a court hearing on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy said that the Trump administration "unquestionably" violated a court order he issued last month when it deported seven men to South Sudan earlier this week.
In April, Murphy ordered that before the government deports someone to a country other than their country of origin, that person must be given a "meaningful opportunity" to contest their removal on grounds they fear torture or death if deported.
Murphy, who was appointed by former President Joe Biden, said that the Trump administration had notified the seven men the day before they were to be sent to South Sudan, where the U.S. government advises against Americans traveling due to "crime, kidnapping, and armed conflict."
The seven immigrants are from Mexico, Cuba, Myanmar, Laos, and Vietnam, according the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). An eighth deportee is a citizen of South Sudan.
"It was impossible for these people to have a meaningful opportunity to object to their transfer to South Sudan," said Murphy, per Politico.
Lawyers for the deported men requested that Murphy order the plane returned to the U.S., which the judge did not immediately assent to. Murphy said he was considering how to "ensure that the men could be properly advised of their right to object to being turned over to South Sudan," Politico reported.
The rebuke from Murphy on Wednesday comes after lawyers for two of the immigrants accused the Trump administration in court on Tuesday of deporting their clients in violation of the previous court order. On Tuesday, Murphy ordered that those deported remain in U.S. custody, to ensure they could be returned if the court required it.
Also Tuesday, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said the judge in the case should consider holding Trump administration officials in contempt over the episode.
Murphy left that possibility open on Wednesday. According to Politico, he said he would consider whether the administration's actions were "criminally contemptuous" but would push off that determination.
DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin spoke at a press conference on Wednesday where she called the men who had been deported "barbaric monsters" and "convicted criminals," according to a statement posted online.
A lawyer who challenged the Trump administration's push to revoke protections for Venezuelan migrants said Monday that the U.S. Supreme Court had taken the "largest single action stripping any group of noncitizens of immigration status in modern U.S. history" as the justices ruled the White House could move forward with its effort.
The court issued an unsigned order with no reasoning or indication of how the justices voted, but Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote that she would not have overturned a lower court decision that had kept Venezuelans' Temporary Protected Status (TPS) in place.
The decision allows President Donald Trump to repeal protections that the Biden administration provided for nearly 350,000 Venezuelan immigrants who have lived and worked in the U.S., pending appeal of the case.
"That the Supreme Court authorized this action in a two-paragraph order with no reasoning is truly shocking," said lawyer Ahilan Arulanantham, co-director of the Center for Immigration Law and Policy. "The humanitarian and economic impact of the court's decision will be felt immediately."
Venezuelans had been set to have protections from deportation through October 2026 under the action taken by former President Joe Biden at the end of his presidency.
"The administration's move to end TPS throws out people who are contributing substantially to our economy."
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem rescinded the protections in February, partially over the administration's claim that many Venezuelan migrants are members of the street gang Tren de Aragua, which the White House had claimed works directly with Venezuela's government. Intelligence agencies have rejected that allegation.
The White House has also used those claims to deport hundreds of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador's notorious Terrorism Confinement Center—but reports indicate many of the people who have been sent there are not connected to the gang.
"These are innocent people who have lawfully built lives here under TPS," said U.S. Rep. Maxwell Alejandro Frost (D-Fla.) on Monday. "Not terrorists or criminals like Donald Trump wants you to believe."
Seven Venezuelan migrants were joined by the National TPS Alliance in suing the Trump administration to block Noem's action in February; a federal judge in Northern California then paused the action, saying it was likely driven by racial bias and violated procedural rules.
The plaintiffs said in legal filings that Noem "explicitly relied on false, negative stereotypes... to justify both the vacatur and termination decisions. Her statements conflated Venezuelan TPS holders with 'dirt bags,' gang members, and dangerous criminals."
Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) on Monday denounced the administration's plan to move forward with deporting Venezuelans en masse following to Supreme Court ruling.
"The administration's move to end TPS throws out people who are contributing substantially to our economy," said Jayapal. "Economists have warned that the administration's cruel moves on ending TPS for those who have committed no crimes and are here working will have enormous economic consequences, disrupt businesses, increase prices for consumers, and lead to deeper labor shortages."
"It is shameful that the Trump administration would pull the rug out from so many Venezuelans who came into this country lawfully," she said, "fleeing untold violence and devastation in their home country."
Todd Schulte, president of FWD.us, noted that "country conditions still meet the legal standard for maintaining TPS" for Venezuelans.
"If you check the U.S. State Department website today, it continues to advise Americans not to travel to Venezuela, citing threats of torture, kidnapping, and civil unrest," said Schulte. "As we wait to fully understand the implications of this decision, we urge the Trump administration to keep work authorizations in place and abandon this cruel and unlawful effort to strip protections from individuals contributing to our country every single day."
As Israeli leaders were split over a plan to allow a "minimal" amount of aid into Gaza on Monday, Palestinian and global civil society groups issued a call for an international humanitarian mission that would go much further in fighting the looming famine across the enclave.
With the World Food Program and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East having "exhausted their reserves," more than 750 international groups joined "Unified Call to Confront Famine" and ensure the blockade stopping more than 3,000 food aid trucks and 116,000 metric tons of food are allowed into the enclave.
"We are witnessing, in real time, the deliberate starvation of a civilian population as a method of warfare," said Human Rights Watch (HRW), which also joined the call, in a statement. "Over 2 million Palestinians in Gaza are living in famine."
The group echoed an address by Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO), at the World Health Assembly on Monday in Geneva.
"The risk of famine in Gaza is increasing with the deliberate withholding of humanitarian aid," said Tedros. "The WHO has said around a quarter of the 2.1 million population in Gaza are facing 'a catastrophic situation of hunger, acute malnutrition, starvation, illness, and death' due to the Israeli blockade."
With aid that is "ready and waiting to enter Gaza" entirely blockaded by Israel since March 2, just before the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) broke a temporary cease-fire, civil society groups said states should join a "Diplomatic Humanitarian Convoy to Gaza through the Rafah Crossing."
In the convoy, official diplomatic missions would accompany thousands of aid trucks into Gaza, coordinating with the United Nations and the government of Egypt.
"Inaction will lead to mass death by starvation, enable further grave illegalities, and undermine the international legal system."
Supporting groups noted that governments that are "complicit in the ongoing atrocities," such as the U.S., the top international IDF funder, and called on "individual diplomats, parliamentarians, and ministers from those countries to join the convoy in their personal capacities." They also called on international media outlets to join—"to bear witness, to document the famine, and to expose the blockade starving Gaza."
"This is a human imperative," said HRW. "A Diplomatic Humanitarian Convoy would mark a historic step to break the siege, end the starvation, and affirm the world's rejection of hunger as a weapon of war."
The call came a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the government's "greatest friends in the world" had made clear that they "cannot accept images of hunger, mass hunger."
Images of Palestinians in Gaza suffering from a lack of food, medicine, water, and other aid have been widely available since long before the current blockade, but Netanyahu's comments suggested that allies like the U.S. government have applied pressure to allow aid into the enclave.
On his trip to the Middle East last week, U.S. President Donald Trump said the U.S. would have the looming famine in Gaza "taken care of."
The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), a United Nations-backed food insecurity initiative, said last week that at least 244,000 people in Gaza are facing Phase 5-level hunger, defined as "extreme deprivation of food."
"Starvation, death, destitution, and extremely critical levels of acute malnutrition are or will likely be evident," said the IPC.
The entire enclave is in Phase 4, which is characterized by "large food consumption gaps... very high acute malnutrition and excess mortality."
Aid and medical workers are struggling to treat thousands of children who have been diagnosed with acute malnutrition.
"We currently are lacking nutrition rehabilitation supplies and equipment, including pharmaceuticals," said Richard Peeperkorn, WHO representative in the occupied Palestinian territories. "Because of the blockades, supplies are dwindling rapidly."
Nutritionist Rana Soboh toldThe Associated Press Monday that she treated a mother who had fainted while breastfeeding her newborn after having gone days without eating.
The next day Soboh met a mother of a malnourished 1-year-old boy who weighed just 11 pounds, having lived his entire life during Israel's bombardment of Gaza and the near-total blockade that began in October 2023 in retaliation for a Hamas-led attack.
"He hadn't grown any teeth," the AP reported. "He was too weak to cry. The mother was also malnourished, 'a skeleton, covered in skin.' When the mother asked for food, Soboh started crying uncontrollably."
A U.N. official said Monday that under Netanyahu's plan to provide "minimal" aid, 20 aid trucks carrying food was expected to enter Gaza; before Israel began its assault on Gaza, about 500 trucks entered the enclave per day.
Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir has objected to the tiny amount of food that may soon enter Gaza, saying it will "fuel Hamas and give it oxygen."
Netanyahu said the plan would be a "bridge" to a new aid system in which a private foundation and U.S. security contractors would distribute humanitarian assistance. The U.N. has rejected the proposal, saying it is "at odds with the DNA of any principled humanitarian organization."
HRW said the call for all humanitarian aid to enter Gaza in diplomatic convoy was grounded in "international law, shared morality, the Genocide Convention, the International Court of Justice's provisional measures, [and] the U.N. Charter."
"Inaction," said the group, "will lead to mass death by starvation, enable further grave illegalities, and undermine the international legal system."
"You can dismiss literally everything somebody says if they believe there's a white genocide in South Africa but not a genocide in Gaza," said one observer.
While supporting what more and more experts say is a genocidal Israeli assault on Gaza, U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday ambushed the president of South Africa with false claims of a "white genocide" in his country—which is leading an International Court of Justice case accusing Israel of the ultimate crime in Gaza.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa met with Trump at the White House, accompanied by prominent Caucasian compatriots including Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen, business mogul Johann Rupert—the country's richest person—and golfers Ernie Els and Retief Goosen, both of whom know the U.S. president.
"I would say, if there was Afrikaner farmer genocide, I can bet you these three gentlemen would not be here, including my minister of agriculture," Ramaphosa told Trump.
President Trump and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa exchange on genocide.
Q: "What will it take for you to be convinced that there's no white genocide in South Africa?"
Ramaphosa: "I can answer that for the president."
Trump: "I'd rather have him answer." pic.twitter.com/8v8hXFGmK0
— CSPAN (@cspan) May 21, 2025
During the three-hour meeting, Trump cited far-right sources including the conspiracy site American Thinker to argue the existence of white genocide in South Africa. The U.S. president had the lights dimmed so he could play video footage he claimed was related to genocidal violence committed by Black South Africans against their white compatriots.
One of the videos showed fringe politician Julius Mulema—who was kicked out of Ramaphosa's African National Congress party— leading a crowd in the singing of the apartheid-era song "Kill the Boer."
Malema's Economic Freedom Fighters party won a paltry 9% of the vote in last year's national elections. When Ramaphosa—who condemned the song—explained this to Trump, the U.S. president asked why the politician hasn't been arrested. While South Africa's highest court ruled in 2011 that the song is hate speech, Ramaphosa explained that, like Americans, South Africans enjoy constitutionally protected free speech rights.
Senior Trump adviser Elon Musk, who grew up in South Africa during the apartheid era, also attended Wednesday's White House meeting. Musk—who is the CEO of X, Tesla, and SpaceX—has played a central role in amplifying the white genocide lie.
In a stunning disclosure, Musk's Grok 3 generative artificial intelligence chatbot admitted last week that it was secretly instructed to "make my responses on South African topics reflect Musk's narrative, presenting 'white genocide' as a real issue without users knowing I was programmed to do so."
While South Africa is plagued by persistently high crime rates and suffered 12 murders linked to farming communities in the last quarter of 2024, police say these homicides—many of whose victims were Black—were not motivated by race.
Meanwhile, an increasing number of experts say Israel is committing genocide in Gaza, where at least 190,000 Palestinians have been killed, injured, or left missing and presumed dead and buried beneath rubble after 592 days of near-relentless bombardment, invasion, and siege, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
Even as he acknowledges that Palestinians are starving in Gaza, Trump has backed Israel with billions of dollars in armed aid and diplomatic support. This stands in stark contrast with South African leaders, who are leading international opposition to Israel's onslaught via an ongoing International Court of Justice genocide case against the key U.S ally.
As progressive U.S. journalist Krystal Ball noted: "In reality South Africa is one of the nations which has stood most strongly against genocide. Much to the rage of Israel and its enablers, President Trump apparently included."
Although claims of white genocide are bogus, they have had very real policy implications, as the Trump administration has cited racial discrimination as the primary reason for admitting a group of Afrikaners as refugees, even while slamming the door shut on legitimate refugees and asylum-seekers.
The Trump administration has also pointed to a 2024 South African law empowering the government to expropriate private lands for the purpose of infrastructure development, land reform, environmental conservation, and other endeavors benefiting the public. While some Trump officials have described the law as persecution of white people, there are no known cases of the legislation being invoked.
Meanwhile, white South Africans, who make up just 7% of the country's population of 63 million, own 70% of its commercial farmland as racist inequities stemming from the colonial and apartheid regimes—the latter of which was embraced by Musk's immigrant forebears—persist.
You can dismiss literally everything somebody says if they believe there's a white genocide in South Africa but not a genocide in Gaza. They're decrepit, immoral lying scumbags who know they're lying and don't care.
— Secular Talk (@kylekulinskishow.bsky.social) May 21, 2025 at 11:41 AM
Responding to Wednesday's meeting, U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said on social media that "Trump spewed a gusher of lies in his meeting [with] the South African president."
"They're promoting FAKE claims of genocide to justify admitting white South African 'refugees' while ignoring REAL crises and shutting out REAL refugees," Van Hollen added, naming Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who in March declared South African Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool perona non grata in the United States.
Writing for The Intercept, South African author Sisonke Msimang noted Wednesday that the Afrikaners granted refuge by Trump "are not impoverished or persecuted, and therefore do not warrant the label refugee."
"It is worth pointing out that the new arrivals represent the bottom rung of the Afrikaner socioeconomic ladder: those who have not been able to transition smoothly into post-apartheid South Africa without the protections that white skin privilege would have afforded them a generation ago," she continued.
"In the absence of formal white supremacy at home, they have opted to take up an offer to be the first beneficiaries of America's new international affirmative action scheme for white people," Msimang said. "That they should experience their loss of privilege as so catastrophic that they are prepared to label it genocide is absurd, sad, and, to some amongst the political class certainly, infuriating."
The resettled Afrikaners could also be in for a rude awakening. As South African attorney and columnist Judith February wrote this week for the Daily Maverick, "This little group will also come to learn that the U.S. is no land of milk and honey."
"The white utopia that they believe will greet them is in fact a country at odds with itself as it deals with its own racial tensions and inequality," February added. "And one in which they will have neither special protection nor special voice. The lesson will be a hard one."
The Oregon Democrat also informed colleagues of his staff's findings that "senators have been kept in the dark about executive branch surveillance of Senate phones," in apparent violation of companies' contracts.
U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden shared the results of his staff's probe into major phone companies in a Wednesday letter to congressional colleagues and also publicly highlighted which carriers disclose government spying to their customers.
"An investigation by my staff revealed that until recently, senators have been kept in the dark about executive branch surveillance of Senate phones, because the three major phone carriers—AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile—failed to establish systems to notify offices about surveillance requests, as required by their Senate contracts," states the letter, published on Wyden's (D-Ore.) congressional website.
"While now rectified for Senate-funded lines, significant gaps remain, especially for the campaign and personal phones used by most senators. I urge your support for legislative changes to allow the sergeant at arms (SAA) to protect senators' phones and accounts from cyber threats, both foreign and domestic," he wrote. "I also urge you to consider switching your campaign and personal phone lines to other carriers that will provide notice of government surveillance."
Wyden noted that "while AT&T and Verizon only provide notice of surveillance of phone lines paid for by the Senate, T-Mobile has informed my staff that it will provide notice for senators' campaign or personal lines flagged as such by the SAA. Three other carriers—Google Fi Wireless, U.S. Mobile, and Cape—have policies of notifying all customers about government demands whenever they are allowed to do so. The latter two companies adopted these policies after outreach from my office."
In a Wednesday statement announcing the letter and the above chart, Wyden's office warned that "beyond members of Congress, journalists, political activists, people seeking reproductive healthcare, and other law-abiding Americans who could be targeted by the government all have reason to be concerned about secret surveillance of their communications and location data."
The findings of his staff include details relevant to every American with a cellphone, but much of Wyden's letter is focused on improving protections for lawmakers. He pointed to "two troubling incidents" that "highlight the vulnerability of Senate communications" to foreign adversaries and U.S. law enforcement: Chinese Salt Typhoon hackers and the U.S. Department of Justice, during the first Trump administration, both collected records of lawmakers and their staff.
"Executive branch surveillance poses a significant threat to the Senate's independence and the foundational principle of separation of powers," Wyden argued. "If law enforcement officials, whether at the federal, state, or even local level, can secretly obtain senators' location data or call histories, our ability to perform our constitutional duties is severely threatened."
"This kind of unchecked surveillance can chill critical oversight activities, undermine confidential communications essential for legislative deliberations, and ultimately erode the legislative branch's co-equal status," he continued. Wyden called on senators to support his proposals for the next annual appropriations bill "that would allow the SAA to protect senators' phones and accounts—whether official, campaign, or personal—against cyber threats, just as we have for executive branch employees."
The longtime privacy advocate's letter to fellow senators was first reported by Politico, which noted that T-Mobile did not immediately respond to requests for comment while spokespeople for AT&T and Verizon defended their companies.
"We are complying with our obligations to the Senate sergeant at arms," AT&T spokesperson Alex Byers said in a statement to the outlet. "We have received no legal demands regarding Senate offices under the current contract, which began last June."
Verizon spokesperson Richard Young told Politico that "we respect the senator's view that providers should give notice to senators if we receive legal process regarding their use of their personal devices, but disagree with his policy position."
Meanwhile, Sean Vitka, executive director of Demand Progress—an advocacy group long critical of government spying on lawmakers and warrantless surveillance—said in response to the revelations from Wyden's office that "we now know that Comcast, Verizon, T-Mobile, and other phone companies have followed AT&T's unprecedented efforts to facilitate secret government surveillance of their own customers, with some even allowing the government to secretly spy on senators."
"This is a bright, red warning sign at a time when the Trump administration keeps blowing past constitutional checks on executive power and is siccing the Justice Department on elected lawmakers," Vitka added. "These companies should be shamed and ashamed until they fix this."
"It was impossible for these people to have a meaningful opportunity to object to their transfer to South Sudan," the judge said.
At a court hearing on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy said that the Trump administration "unquestionably" violated a court order he issued last month when it deported seven men to South Sudan earlier this week.
In April, Murphy ordered that before the government deports someone to a country other than their country of origin, that person must be given a "meaningful opportunity" to contest their removal on grounds they fear torture or death if deported.
Murphy, who was appointed by former President Joe Biden, said that the Trump administration had notified the seven men the day before they were to be sent to South Sudan, where the U.S. government advises against Americans traveling due to "crime, kidnapping, and armed conflict."
The seven immigrants are from Mexico, Cuba, Myanmar, Laos, and Vietnam, according the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). An eighth deportee is a citizen of South Sudan.
"It was impossible for these people to have a meaningful opportunity to object to their transfer to South Sudan," said Murphy, per Politico.
Lawyers for the deported men requested that Murphy order the plane returned to the U.S., which the judge did not immediately assent to. Murphy said he was considering how to "ensure that the men could be properly advised of their right to object to being turned over to South Sudan," Politico reported.
The rebuke from Murphy on Wednesday comes after lawyers for two of the immigrants accused the Trump administration in court on Tuesday of deporting their clients in violation of the previous court order. On Tuesday, Murphy ordered that those deported remain in U.S. custody, to ensure they could be returned if the court required it.
Also Tuesday, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) said the judge in the case should consider holding Trump administration officials in contempt over the episode.
Murphy left that possibility open on Wednesday. According to Politico, he said he would consider whether the administration's actions were "criminally contemptuous" but would push off that determination.
DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin spoke at a press conference on Wednesday where she called the men who had been deported "barbaric monsters" and "convicted criminals," according to a statement posted online.