President Donald Trump's recent intervention in South Africa has been furious in the free media, and his "fact check" machinery has been speeding to review every misstatement or exaggeration of the president. However, on the basic issues, Western audiences are misled by progressive journalists, whose views in turn are disconnected from the ordinary South African views.

South Africa is a violent society. Since becoming democracy in 1994
650,000 South Africans were murdered. This is not only the number of intentional homicides in the Western world during the same period
Although the population of the West is close to one billion,
South Africa is close to 60 million. Based on per capita, this is equivalent to
The murder rate in South Africa is about 40 per 100,000 people, while the global interest rate is close to six per 100,000 people.

Trump's criticism of South Africa's violent crime crisis has received unexpected local support

In an already violent climate, armed attacks on commercial farms have occurred in the number of similar attack rates (essentially armed family invasions and robberies) in the wider population over the past three decades. Furthermore, we calculated that about 20% of armed raids resulted in murders, while similar raids elsewhere were less than 2%. We also judge that the rate of attacks on black commercial producers is similar to that of their white compatriots.

Because blacks and whites South Africans live in this kind of violence,
The hymn of murder "Kill Boer, Kill Farmers", was played in detail at an Oval Office meeting last week with South Africa, where he encountered strong disapproval. An April 2025 poll found that 80% of South Africans disapprove of the ode, viewing it as hate speech, or thinking it should be banned. Western audiences may be told that the ode is purely a metaphorical “anti-apartheid” song, but in fact, in the armed struggle between Rhodesia and South Africa, it was first taught to the guerrillas, where the peasants were seen as legitimate military targets.

Western audiences are often told that white South Africans, who only make up 7% of South Africa's population, own "three-quarters" of agricultural land, while black South Africans only "4%. These numbers are misleading. Most of the white land is hidden in the arid western half of the country. These areas have similar terrain, climate and population density to Arizona, Nevada or New Mexico. Amid high rainfall, about half of the country's land is densely populated, although there is no ownership. The reason for this is that the South African government continues to deny the individual titles of many black communities, preferring land held by the state or its agents as means of social and political control. Granting individual ownership will greatly change the land ownership model.

The belief that the land ownership model represents a national crisis may be popular in Western media, but not South Africans
Own. A recent poll found that the highest point of local concern is work
Creating, more than 20% of respondents called South Africa’s most important challenge. The distance to "promote entry into the land" is very long,
Less than 5% of respondents mentioned.

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Finally, the recently enacted expropriation legislation has been extracted
The Trump administration's special concern is not benign
the domain measures, as it presents. It allows any state agency to seize any
A property - not only land - is lower than its market value. A recent poll found that the idea was opposed by less than 70% of South Africans, which was seen as a measure to be abused by the notorious corrupt political class.

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Contrary to the elite opinions of the West, the U.S. government’s concerns about violence, property rights and economic progress in South Africa
Resonating closely with the concerns of South Africans themselves, who are primarily pragmatic and conservative, sharing many democratic values.