The South African ambassador who was expelled from the United States in a row with US President Donald Trump’s administration has arrived home to a raucous welcome and struck a defiant tone over the decision.

Crowds at Cape Town International Airport surrounded Ebrahim Rasool and his wife Rosieda on Sunday as they emerged in the arrivals terminal in their hometown. They needed a police escort to help them navigate their way through the building.

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“A declaration of persona non grata is meant to humiliate you,” Rasool told supporters as he addressed them with a megaphone. “But when you return to crowds like this, and with warmth … like this, then I will wear my persona non grata as a badge of dignity.”

“It was not our choice to come home, but we come home with no regrets.”

Rasool also said it was important for South Africa to fix its relationship with the US after Trump punished the country and accused it of taking an anti-American stance even before the decision to expel Rasool.

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Trump issued an executive order last month cutting all funding to South Africa, alleging its government is supporting the Palestinian group Hamas and Iran, and pursuing anti-white policies at home.

South Africa filed a case at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in December 2023, which accuses Israel of violating its obligations under the Genocide Convention in its war on the Gaza Strip. More than 10 countries have since joined South Africa in the genocide case.

“We don’t come here to say we are anti-American,” Rasool said to the crowd. “We are not here to call on you to throw away our interests with the United States.”

They were the ex-ambassador’s first public comments since the Trump administration declared him persona non grata over a week ago, removed his diplomatic immunities and privileges, and gave him until Friday to leave the country. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who issued the declaration on X, said Rasool was a “race-baiting politician” who hates the US and Trump.

It is highly unusual for the US to expel a foreign ambassador.

Rubio’s post linked to a story by the conservative Breitbart news site that reported on a talk Rasool gave on a webinar organised by a South African think tank. In his talk, Rasool spoke in academic language of the Trump administration’s crackdowns on diversity and equity programmes and immigration and mentioned the possibility of a US where white people soon would no longer be in the majority.

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