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As House Republicans prepare to investigate former President Joe Biden’s health and mental fitness while in office, they are increasingly zeroing in on his use of a so-called autopen to sign certain pieces of legislation and executive orders.

Autopens have been used in the White House to generate signatures for decades, with Barack Obama being the first president to use it to sign legislation. But congressional Republicans — who are largely taking their cues from President Donald Trump — see the use of autopens as a key line of attack as they reopen a probe into Biden’s mental acuity and his ability to do his job as president.

“We’re focused on the autopen,” House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., told NBC News. “Who was making the decisions? Who was authorizing his signature? Was it him?” 

There is no official record of how often Biden used an autopen for official government business. The conservative Heritage Foundation released a study accusing the administration of using an autopen extensively, largely based on the timing of when Biden signed documents compared to when he was traveling. 

The Department of Justice’s office of legal counsel issued a memo on the topic in 2005 that concluded that the practice was legal. A federal appeals court ruled as recently as 2024 that the “the absence of a writing does not equate to proof that a commutation did not occur,” when it relates to the use of a presidential autopen. 

A former Biden White House official pushed back against Comer’s assertions and defended the former president’s autopen use. 

“Any accusation that President Biden was not making decisions is false. President Biden made the decisions about the pardons and the executive orders he issued, and the legislation he signed into law,” the former official, who was not authorized to speak on Biden’s behalf, told NBC News. “It is a well-established and legal practice to use an autopen for a signature after he has made the decision. This clerical mechanism was sometimes used during his Administration as it was in other Administrations going back several decades.”

A spokesperson for Biden declined to comment. 

House Republicans’ decision to move forward with a congressional investigation, which is still taking shape, comes in the wake of revelations in a new book about Biden’s cognitive decline and the release of an audio of the former president’s transcribed interview with former special counsel Robert Hur as part of the investigation into his handling of classified documents. 

The increased scrutiny also comes at a delicate moment, with Biden revealing over the weekend that he has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer that has spread to his bones. Yet Republicans are undeterred, and in some cases, only more convinced that the Biden White House was not truthful about the former president’s mental and physical health.

The House Oversight Committee, which will lead the investigative effort, is preparing to hand down a new round of subpoenas to a number of former Biden White House officials. Comer, who helped lead the House GOP’s unsuccessful effort to impeach Biden last Congress over his family’s business deals, has accused the officials of purposely shielding the then-president from the public eye. 

Comer said that the committee would be reaching out to people in and around Biden’s orbit as part of its investigation as soon as this week. But it remains to be seen whether there will be any public hearings.

“I’ve always said you get more information in Oversight from depositions and interviews than you do public hearings. … It’s a hard group to manage in public hearings,” he told NBC News. “No hearings ever produce much.”

During the last Congress, Comer’s committee subpoenaed three key White House aides to testify about Biden’s mental fitness: Annie Tomasini, Anthony Bernal and Ashley Williams. They also requested a transcribed interview with then-White House physician Dr. Kevin O’Conner. The Biden administration blocked all four from cooperating with the committee. But the panel is expected to approach that same group again. 

Trump has attacked Biden’s use of an autopen, most recently on Tuesday during a trip to the Capitol.

“Who was operating the autopen? This is a very serious thing,” Trump told reporters ahead of a meeting with House Republicans. “We had a president that didn’t sign anything. He autopenned almost anything.”

Trump then later escalated his attacks on social media, calling Biden’s advisers “treasonous thugs” and accusing them, without evidence, of using the autopen to control the presidency.

Trump has claimed that if Biden used an autopen to sign pre-emptive pardons of the members of Congress, staffers and Department of Justice staff that investigated the events surrounding the Jan. 6, 2021, attack at the U.S. Capitol, they may be invalid. 

While House Republicans and Trump appear to be aligned in their desire to investigate Biden’s fitness to serve, there is some frustration brewing among congressional committees about how quickly the Trump administration is responding to some of their requests, according to multiple GOP congressional sources familiar with the matter.

The House Oversight and Judiciary committees have long been pushing for the release of the Hur audio. But the tapes have still not been released through formal congressional channels, although the audio was reported on by Axios last Friday and is now publicly available. Several media outlets, including NBC News, have obtained the audio after suing for its release.

The Justice Department did not respond for a request to comment about releasing the tapes to Congress.

“We pushed the Hur tape issue all last Congress, all the way to contempt,” said House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio. But when asked by NBC News on Tuesday if his committee had received the audio, Jordan said: “Not the actual physical tapes. But they’re out there.”

Department of Justice officials on Tuesday charged members or associates of an Armenian organized crime ring with stealing more than $83 million worth of cargo from Amazon by posing as legitimate truck drivers and siphoning off goods destined for the company’s warehouses.

Since at least 2021, at least four people linked to the crime ring carried out a scheme across California to steal truckloads of merchandise, ranging from smart TVs and GE icemakers to SharkNinja vacuums and air fryers, the DOJ alleged.

“At present, Amazon is plagued by recurring thefts of its shipments, which is commonly referred to as ‘cargo theft,’” the complaint says.

Amazon has ramped up its efforts to track and shut down fraudulent, deceptive and illegal activities on its sprawling online store. Eliminating stolen goods is particularly challenging. CNBC reported in 2023 that Amazon suspended dozens of third-party merchants it alleged were selling stolen goods, though many of those sellers claimed they were unknowingly caught in the scheme, putting their businesses at risk of survival.

Amazon isn’t the only retailer afflicted by cargo theft. Experts told CNBC cargo theft-related losses are estimated at close to $1 billion or more a year.

In its complaint, the DOJ said the alleged fraudsters operated four transport carriers — AK Transportation, NBA Holdings, Belman Transport and Markos Transportation — that would obtain contracted freight routes from Amazon Relay, an application used by truckers to obtain work, also referred to as loads.

Each trucker is assigned a load for pickup from a manufacturer’s warehouse to be dropped off at an Amazon facility. Instead, the groups would divert from their designated routes, take a portion of the goods off the trucks and resell them or gift them to associates, prosecutors allege.

In some cases, the “self-styled carriers” would complete their deliveries at an Amazon warehouse several days after they were expected to show up, according to the complaint.

DOJ officials seized the alleged fraudsters’ iPhones and found photos and videos of warehouses lined with boxes of crockpots, Keurig coffee machines, keratin shampoo, Weber grills and other goods.

Amazon teams cooperated with DOJ officials in their investigation, including sharing information about the stolen goods, and details of the alleged fraudsters’ accounts on its online marketplace.

An Amazon spokesperson said in a statement that the company has “zero tolerance” for cargo theft and other forms of organized retail crime. Amazon relies on a mix of internal teams and technologies to prevent ORC schemes. The company has also referred “thousands” of ORC bad actors to law enforcement officials.

“These referrals have resulted in arrests, product seizures and recoveries, and the dismantling of ORC networks in the U.S. and around the world,” they said in a statement.

DOJ officials linked the defendants to a litany of other alleged crimes, including attempted murder, kidnapping, illegal firearm possession and health-care fraud. Several of the 13 defendants are expected to appear in a Los Angeles district court on Tuesday and Wednesday, while one of the defendants appeared in a court in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on Tuesday and was detained.

After a deportation flight with eight migrants left Texas reportedly intended for South Sudan this week, a federal judge on Wednesday ruled that the Trump administration had violated a previous order.

District Court Judge Brian Murphy in Massachusetts said during a hearing that the Trump administration had failed to adhere to his injunction, issued in March, preventing individuals from being sent to a country other than their own without giving them an opportunity to raise fears of persecution or torture.

The judge’s ruling comes after the Department of Homeland Security confirmed during a press briefing Wednesday morning that eight individuals from Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Cuba, Mexico and South Sudan were deported this week. According to the DHS, many of these individuals had violent criminal convictions, including murder and sexual assault.

“The department’s actions,” Murphy said, “are unquestionably violative of this court’s order.”

A State Department travel advisory warns Americans not to go to South Sudan, “due to crime, kidnapping, and armed conflict” and notes that in March, because of conditions on the ground, the department “ordered the departure of non-emergency U.S. government employees from South Sudan.”

Government attorneys said that the migrants are still in ICE custody, and that the plane has since landed. They declined to share the location of the plane’s final destination.

Murphy, who relayed publicly the sequence of events leading to the deportation of these individuals after spending more than 30 minutes in a sealed proceeding, said the individuals were notified of their destination “sometime in the evening” on Monday, outside business hours. He added that they left the ICE facility the next morning at the latest in the 10 a.m. hour and at the earliest before 9 a.m.

Without sufficient time to consult an attorney or family members, the judge said that it was “impossible” for those individuals to “have a meaningful opportunity to object” to their deportation to a third country.

The hearing comes after immigration attorneys told Murphy that at least two of their clients, from Myanmar and Vietnam, were allegedly deported Tuesday morning to South Sudan.

It’s possible one of the migrants, Nyo Mint, might have been diverted to his home country of Burma but his San Antonio-based immigration attorney Jonathan Ryan says he is still in the dark about where his client is right now and says he has been “disappeared.”

“I have not heard from my client,” Ryan said. “How am I supposed to take their word that they sent him to Burma?”

Ryan says the government is acting as if due process is a privilege saying it’s a problem “when we stop doing due process for unpopular people.”

South Sudan could be headed for another civil war. A 2018 power-sharing agreement between President Salva Kiir and Vice President Riek Machar, ended five years of civil war. But earlier this year, violent clashes between the factions have ramped up once again.

Earlier this month, Murphy blocked the Trump administration’s attempt to deport individuals from countries including the Philippines, Vietnam and Laos to Libya. Then, Murphy had reaffirmed his injunction on third country deportations in response to an emergency motion from the migrants’ lawyers.

The feud between President Donald Trump and veteran rock star Bruce Springsteen escalated Wednesday after the commander in chief posted a doctored video to social media showing him hitting the singer with a golf ball.

In the posts, shared to the president’s Truth Social and X accounts, Trump is shown hitting a golf ball. The video then shows a clip of Springsteen, 75, tripping at one of his shows and rolling as he falls onto the stage. A golf ball appears to be added into the second clip as if Trump was responsible for hitting Springsteen and making him fall.

The post comes as the president and the “Born in the U.S.A.” singer have publicly traded barbs after Springsteen’s comments last week during the opening show of his European tour.

“The America I love, the America I’ve written about, that has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years, is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration,” he said.

He went on to accuse the Trump administration of “abandoning the world’s poorest children to sickness and death … taking sadistic pleasure in the pain that they inflict on loyal American workers,” and rolling back civil rights in the United States.

Springsteen will include his comments about Trump on an EP he’s releasing of the recent concert, according to Variety.

Initially, the Trump administration replied with a statement, saying that “the 77 million Americans that elected President Trump disagree with elitist and out-of-touch celebrities like Bruce Springsteen.”

Trump later responded to the comments on Truth Social, saying Springsteen was “overrated” and a “jerk.”

“Never liked him, never liked his music, or his Radical Left Politics and, importantly, he’s not a talented guy — Just a pushy, obnoxious JERK, who fervently supported Crooked Joe Biden, a mentally incompetent FOOL, and our WORST EVER President, who came close to destroying our Country,” Trump wrote.

Springsteen isn’t the only musician to speak out about Trump, or the only one to be on the receiving end of Trump’s wrath.

Last week, Trump posted about how Taylor Swift, who recently finished a massive two-year, record-breaking tour, is no longer “hot” ever since he posted that he hated her following her endorsement of former Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.

“Has anyone noticed that, since I said ‘I HATE TAYLOR SWIFT,’ she’s no longer ‘HOT?’” Trump wrote Friday.

Representatives for Springsteen and Swift did not immediately return a request for comment.

Other musicians such as Neil Young and Pearl Jam singer Eddie Vedder have come to the defense of Springsteen and Swift.

“Bruce and thousands of musicians think you are ruining America. You worry about that instead of the dyin’ kids in Gaza,” Young wrote on his website. “That’s your problem. I am not scared of you.”

During a concert in Pittsburgh on Sunday, Vedder said that Trump’s response to Springsteen has nothing to do with the concerns he raised.

“All that we heard were personal attacks and threats that nobody else should try to use their microphones or voice in public or they’ll be shut down,” Vedder told the crowd.

MINEOLA, N.Y. — A former New York state trooper pleaded guilty Wednesday to charges that he shot himself then falsely claimed he was wounded by an unknown gunman on a Long Island highway, prompting a regionwide search.

Thomas Mascia agreed to serve six months in jail, followed by five months of probation and continued mental health treatment as he formally changed his not guilty plea during a court appearance in Nassau County court in Mineola.

He also agreed, as part of his plea deal, to pay $289,000 in restitution for the overtime costs for officers during the three-day search for a nonexistent suspect.

The West Hempstead resident had been charged with official misconduct, tampering with evidence and falsifying documents. He became a trooper in 2019 and resigned after being suspended without pay while state police launched a criminal investigation into the shooting.

Mascia’s parents, Dorothy and Thomas, also pleaded guilty Wednesday to firearm charges related to the incident.

Mascia claimed he was shot in the leg on Oct. 30 by a driver parked on the shoulder of the Southern State Parkway, about a mile from his home.

The shooting prompted a massive search as the trooper said the suspect, who he claimed was a “dark-skinned” man, fled in a car bearing temporary New Jersey plates heading toward New York City.

Instead, prosecutors say, Mascia shot himself in a local park, stashed the gun, drove to the highway and called for backup. They say the ruse was an apparent bid to gain attention and sympathy.

During Wednesday’s proceedings, prosecutors asked the former trooper a series of questions confirming the sequence of events.

“You knew this was a lie and chose to do it anyway?” Jared Rosenblatt of the Nassau County district attorney’s office asked at the end of the questions.

“Yes,” Mascia replied in a low voice.

The former trooper and his parents didn’t respond to reporters as they left the courthouse with their lawyers. They’re scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 20.

The family had appeared in court earlier this month to change their pleas, but the judge at the time halted the proceedings after the former trooper said he did not feel well mentally and that he was receiving treatment.

Jeffrey Lichtman, Mascia’s lawyer, previously said the former trooper, who resigned in January, has been suffering from “untreated mental health issues” for years.

MEXICO CITY — Two top aides of Mexico City Mayor Clara Brugada were shot dead after being ambushed by gunmen on a motorbike in a daytime attack in the city center on Tuesday.

The victims were the mayor’s private secretary, Ximena Guzmán, and an adviser to Brugada, José Muñoz, according to a statement from the city.

The assassinations have sent shockwaves through Mexico’s capital, widely regarded as an oasis of relative security in a country plagued by violence. Political violence has become common in many parts of Mexico, where scores of local political candidates have been assassinated in killings usually linked to drug cartels seeking to exert influence.

Initial reports indicated Guzmn had been driving to work and stopped on a busy avenue in downtown Mexico City to pick up her colleague, an official at the federal prosecutor’s office said.

Muñoz was approached by two gunmen on a motorbike who shot and killed him in the street. The attackers then fired at least four shots at Guzmán inside the vehicle, killing her.

Authorities have not yet given a motive for the attack although security experts say it appeared to be a hit carried out by organized crime.

Mexico City’s civil security office said that a motorbike had been seized not far from attack, as well as another vehicle in the Iztacalco neighborhood, while investigators were looking into ballistic and fingerprint evidence from the scene.

“I feel very sad for the loss of Ximena and Pepe (Jose), with whom for many years we shared dreams and struggles,” a noticeably distressed Brugada said.

She thanked Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and her cabinet for the support and cooperation they had provided since the attack. Sheinbaum is a former mayor of Mexico City.

“It is a deplorable incident and we are going to give all the support that the mayor may need,” Sheinbaum said.

Brugada added that there would be no impunity for those responsible for the killing. She was not in the car when the attack took place, a Mexico City government official told Reuters.

Photos in local media showed a black Audi with four bullet holes in the front window and a sheet covering what appeared to be one body, while another body was covered with a white sheet on the pavement.

Police patrols taped off the area so forensic specialists could examine the scene.

“It was a harsh message sent to Clara (Brugada), undoubtedly perpetrated by drug traffickers,” said David Saucedo, a public security specialist. Groups affected by drug seizures have previously launched attacks against the capital’s authorities, he said.

In 2020 then Mexico City police chief Omar García Harfuch, now the federal security minister, was shot and injured in an assassination attempt that killed two of his bodyguards. That attack was blamed by him on one of the country’s most powerful drug groups, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel.

Debate over a transgender student’s win in a middle school girls track meet grew heated at a school board meeting in suburban Illinois this week.

The meet took place at Jefferson Middle School in Naperville, about 30 miles west of Chicago, where the student athlete won multiple events, becoming a microcosm of a national debate over trans athletes in sports.

During public comment at a Naperville Community Unit School District 203 Board meeting Monday, nearly 100 parents could be seen in the audience, some raising transgender pride flags, others holding signs that read “Protect Girls Sports” and “Stop Exploiting Kids.”

At one point, an audience member could be heard shouting “Protect trans youth” before being escorted out of the meeting.

Parents opposed to the student’s participation in the meet have asked for federal funds to be frozen at District 203 until the board changes course on its athletics policies, arguing they are in violation of Title IX.

Title IX is a federal law that prohibits sex-based discrimination in education programs and activities that receive federal funds.

Awake Illinois, a nonprofit organization advocating against gender-affirming care for minors, filed a federal civil rights complaint against the district over the meet.

Parents who spoke in the meeting argued the student’s participation “creates an unfair playing field for our daughters” while others expressed support for the school’s inclusive policy.

Illinois’ Human Rights Act prohibits discrimination based on gender identity in educational settings in the state.

“Transgender, nonbinary, and gender nonconforming students often face barriers to participation in school athletics and other gender-based activities. Physical education, school sports teams, and school clubs are considered ‘facilities, goods and services’ under the Act and students are entitled to participate in these activities free from discrimination based on sex, sexual orientation, or gender-related identity,” the Illinois Department of Human Rights stated, adding that “students cannot be prevented from access to, full participation in, or the equal enjoyment of extracurricular activities due to their gender-related identity.”

In a statement, District 203 said it is “committed to protecting the privacy of all students.”

“In accordance with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and district policy, we cannot and will not share personal or identifiable information about any student without appropriate consent,” the statement read. “In regards to our procedures, Naperville 203 adheres to the Illinois Human Rights Act and the Illinois State Board of Education guidance, which prohibit discrimination in schools and ensure full and equal access to programs and services regardless of gender identity or other protected characteristics.”

No action was taken at the meeting Monday.

“The initial reaction to start filing court cases with the Department of Justice and turn a 13-year-old or a 12-year-old’s life into a spectacle…that’s just not a very humane thing to be doing,” Kristal Larson with the LGBTQ Center in Grayslake told NBC Chicago.

Larson noted that a child’s ability to participate in sports is pivotal to their mental health.

Dr. Kelsey Leonardsmith, who treats transgender children from several states at the Family Tree Clinic in Minneapolis, and is a professor at the University of Minnesota Medical School, said transgender girls and women are already underrepresented in sports and make up just a tiny percentage of student athletes. She disputed the contention of critics that allowing them to participate in girls sports gives them unfair advantages and puts other girls in physical danger.

“Shutting out trans girls helps no one, and it is profoundly harmful to those it excludes,” Leonardsmith said. “On the surface, it removes opportunities for physical activity, for fitness, for belonging. But on a more fundamental level, it says to trans youth, ‘We do not believe you, you are not real,’ and it is hard to imagine a more damaging message to send to children.”

Cases of transgender athletes in women sports have been at the center of nationwide debates since President Donald Trump took office.

In 2022, the NCAA used a sport-by-sport approach to allow transgender athletes to participate, deferring to an individual sport’s national governing organization, international federation or prior established International Olympic Committee criteria.

The NCAA changed its policy the day after Trump signed an executive order on Feb. 5 that was intended to ban transgender athletes from competing in girls and women’s sports. That ended its sport-by-sport practice in favor of a blanket policy that only allows athletes assigned female at birth to participate in women’s sports.

The Illinois High School Association “allows participation by students consistent with their gender identity subject to applicable federal and state laws,” though they have urged state officials to communicate with federal authorities to “provide clear direction.”

The Education Department has already opened reviews of San Jose State University volleyball, Denver Public Schools, Portland Public Schools, Oregon School Activities Association and the Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association, among others.

This story first appeared on NBC Chicago

A Navy technician was arrested on charges of making a false bomb threat while he was on a Hawaiian Airlines flight, authorities said.

Electronics Technician 1st Class John Stea, 35, was arrested and charged with making a false bomb threat and false report of a security threat.

San Diego Harbor Police allege in a news release that Stea told a flight attendant on Hawaii Airlines Flight 15 that the passenger next to him had a bomb as the flight was getting ready to depart. The flight attendant told the captain about the potential threat, police said.

“Harbor Police reminds the public that maliciously reporting a false bomb threat is against the law and can result in fines and up to one year incarceration in county jail or state prison if convicted,” police said.

The incident happened as the plane was about to leave San Diego International Airport for Honolulu, prompting the plane to taxi to a safe location and a search of the aircraft. The nearly 300 people onboard were deplaned and transported by bus to a secure area, police said.

The aircraft and all luggage were eventually cleared.

“The safety of the public and our personnel is of utmost importance to the Navy. We take all threats seriously and are cooperating fully with local and federal authorities,” Lt. Mohammad N. Issa, deputy public affairs officer, Commander, U.S. 3rd Fleet, said in a statement.

VATICAN CITY — Pope Leo XIV called Wednesday for humanitarian aid to reach the Gaza Strip and for an end to the “heartbreaking” toll on its people, as he presided over his first general audience in St. Peter’s Square.

The Vatican said that around 40,000 people were on hand for the audience, which came just days after an estimated 200,000 people attended the inaugural Mass on Sunday for history’s first American pope.

Leo, the former Cardinal Robert Prevost of Chicago, began the audience with a tour through the piazza in the popemobile and stopped to bless several babies. In addressing specific greetings to different groups of pilgrims, Leo spoke in his native English, his fluent Spanish as well as the traditional Italian of the papacy.

“I renew my heartfelt appeal to allow the entrance of dignified humanitarian aid to Gaza and to put an end to the hostilities whose heartbreaking price is being paid by children, the elderly and sick people,” he said.

Leo did not mention the plight of hostages taken by Hamas during the assault on southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, as Pope Francis normally would.

The general audience on Wednesdays is a weekly appointment that popes have kept for decades to allow ordinary faithful to have a face-to-face encounter with the pontiff. It features the pope delivering a brief reflection on a theme or Scripture passage, with summaries provided by others in different languages and the pope directing specific messages to particular faith groups.

The encounter, which lasts more than an hour, usually ends with a brief topical appeal by the pope about a current issue or upcoming event. Leo began it with his now-frequent mantra “Peace be with you.”

To that end, Leo on Tuesday reaffirmed the Vatican’s willingness to host the next round of ceasefire talks between Russia and Ukraine during a phone call with Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni, the Italian leader’s office said.

Meloni made the call after speaking with President Donald Trump and other European leaders, who asked her to verify the Holy See’s offer.

“Finding in the Holy Father the confirmation of the willingness to welcome the next talks between the parties, the premier expressed profound gratitude for Pope Leo XIV’s willingness and his incessant commitment in favor of peace,” Meloni’s office said in a statement late Tuesday.

Trump had referred to the Vatican’s longstanding offer to host talks in reporting on his phone call Monday with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

While low-level talks could take place in Rome, Italy would be hard-pressed to allow Putin to fly into Rome for any higher-level negotiation. Putin is subject to an international arrest warrant against him from the International Criminal Court, of which Italy is a founding member and therefore obliged to execute its warrants.

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump will host South African President Cyril Ramaphosa at the White House on Wednesday in an effort to improve relations between the two countries after months of tensions.

The United States admitted 59 white South Africans as refugees this month after they claimed they were fleeing violence and discrimination. Trump and top adviser Elon Musk, who was born in South Africa, have claimed the Afrikaners, white descendants of Dutch and French settlers, were targets of a “genocide.” South African leaders have fiercely disputed the claims.

“We all know as South Africans, both Black and white, that there’s no genocide here,” Ramaphosa said last week in a video clip on X. “We are not genocidal. We are not committing any act of hatred, act of retribution or violence against anyone.”

Ramaphosa told reporters Tuesday that his visit Wednesday would focus on potential trade and investment deals, as well as aim to “consolidate good relations between our two countries.”

Trump has accused South Africa of being “terrible” to farmers, and in February he said the United States would cut off aid to the country, alleging on Truth Social that South Africa was “treating certain classes of people VERY BADLY.”

The White House has also criticized South Africa’s 2024 Expropriation Act, which allows the government, in some cases, to seize unused land without compensation or when there is public interest in redistributing it (a process similar to eminent domain laws in the United States.)

Ramaphosa said in February that his government has not confiscated land.

“The recently adopted Expropriation Act is not a confiscation instrument, but a constitutionally mandated legal process that ensures public access to land in an equitable and just manner as guided by the constitution,” he said on X.

Still, the White House claimed that the law was a “shocking disregard of its citizens’ rights” and alleged that it followed actions “fueling disproportionate violence against racially disfavored landowners.” The administration used the act to prioritize refugee admission and resettlement for Afrikaners, arguing the white South Africans were “victims of unjust racial discrimination.”

Trump alleged that South Africa was experiencing a “genocide,” adding, “They happen to be white, but whether they’re white or Black makes no difference to me.”

There were 12 murders on farms last year, The Associated Press reported, citing police statistics. One of the victims was a farmer, and the rest were farmworkers, none of whom were identified by race, according to the AP. White farmers own roughly three-quarters of South Africa’s privately owned land, according to government data.

Afrikaners are minority white descendants of Dutch and French settlers who ruled the country during the apartheid regime, which ended in 1994. During apartheid rule, Afrikaners enforced racial segregation and confiscated land from Black residents.

The United States admitted the Afrikaner refugees even as the Trump administration has shut down admitting refugees from most other countries, including Afghanistan, Sudan and Myanmar.

The X account for South Africa’s government posted in February that “we look forward to engaging with the Trump administration over our land reform policy and issues of bilateral interest.”

“We are certain that out of those engagements, we will share a better and common understanding over these matters,” the post continued.

The U.S. and South Africa have also butted heads over the Israel-Hamas war, after South Africa accused Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. South Africa is leading a case in the United Nation’s International Court of Justice.

The White House referred to the genocide allegations in Trump’s February executive order centering on Afrikaner refugees, saying that “South Africa has taken aggressive positions towards the United States and its allies.”