President Donald Trump issued an executive order on February 7 halting foreign aid to South Africa from the U.S. Agency for International Development and other federal agencies over concerns that Afrikaners—South Africans of European descent—had been subject to “government-sponsored race-based discrimination.

In mid-February 2025, posts on social media sites like Facebook (archived here) alleged that the nation of South Africa had announced a ban on all United States-based businesses there and was halting all mining exports to the U.

South Africa has neither suspended U.S. businesses from operating in the country nor stopped exporting minerals to the U.S., contrary to a claim made online in response to Washington’s decision to cut aid.