Bulwark Takes - Trump’s Sickening “White’s Only” Refugee Plan

Episode Date: May 13, 2025

Tim Miller calls out the press conference by Trump's Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau where he explains the decision to accept white South African refugees while rejecting others, particularly Afghan refugees being forced to leave the United States, highlighting blatant racial bias and hypocrisy in U.S. refugee policy. Watch Tim's conversation with Will Selber, "They Will Be Killed” Trump Orders Afghan Refugees to Self-Deport

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have your back. They have the receipts. Get 25% off at ritual.com slash clinical. These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Hey guys, Tim Miller from The Bulwark. I just saw this press conference from the Trump's deputy secretary of state who was explaining the administration's decision to welcome as refugees a couple whistle. It is a bullhorn from one of the most condescending blowhards that I've ever had the displeasure of watching do a press conference. And so I felt like I was obligated to share the pain with you all. And I had to learn a little bit about this gentleman, our Deputy Secretary of State, who is not surprisingly a Nepo baby, Christopher Landau. Well, a Nepo grandpa, I guess, at this point.

But let's go to the video to watch his explanation for why the administration is taking in Afrikaner refugees at the same time they are blocking people fleeing persecution from other countries, such as Afghanistan, taking away the protected status from refugees fleeing persecution in places such as Afghanistan. And we'll take a look at his answer. There are many people who are who fit the criteria of seeking help, who are fleeing persecution. Afghans, for example, they live in a country run by the Taliban. But they're being denied refugee status. So I'm wondering why has such an exception been made for the Afrikaans, especially when the South African government says they're not in danger?

I think you may recall that on the president's first day in office on January 20th of this year, he issued an executive order that paused U.S. refugee programs that had been going at record levels under the prior administration and had brought in people that we were not sure had been carefully vetted for national security issues, and put a pause on the refugee admission program in general. That pause, of course, was subject from the very beginning to exceptions where it was determined that this would be in the interest of the United States. Some of the criteria are making sure that refugees did not pose any challenge to our national security and that they could be assimilated easily into our country. Making sure they can be assimilated easily into the country.

Let's see if we can figure that one out. Why do you think the Afrikaners, you know, the South African Afrikaners, quite a few of those in the administration, Elon Musk, David Sachs, why do we think the Afrikaners could be assimilated into our culture more easily than those fleeing persecution from other countries, say Afghanistan or Africa or Venezuela. Can you guys put your finger on it? I'm trying to put my finger on it. What do you think it would be that would make the assimilation easier?

Do you think our white Afrikaners, like are they more into hamburgers? Do you think that are they more familiar with-style football down there, do you think? Do you think it's that? Do you think big Taylor Swift fans, Beyonce in South Africa? There was that great South Africa concert for Whitney Houston a few decades ago, but I think that would have been many of the black South Africans who were in attendance in that. I don't know. I'd have to go back and Africans who were in attendance in that. I don't know.

I'd have to go back and look at the video of the crowd. I'm not sure. But what could be the other cultural elements that he could be referencing? Hmm. Because I don't know. For example, I might look at Afghanistan and say, boy, what about the people that fought alongside us? The Afghan refugees, people fleeing Afghanistan, they were like presented a real choice between going along with the Taliban, you know, or going along with some of the other Islamist groups in the country or working with the U.S. government, working with the U.S. military that was trying to bring a democracy, however, ham-handedly to Afghanistan.

And many of the refugees that came chose to work with us to help us to ally with us. So you'd think that they'd already like put their money where their mouth was, you know, and they'd already like, they have skin in the game when it comes to being assimilated into America. And I don't know, we'll put the link in the show notes. Maybe some of you missed I did an interview with Will Selber is an Afghan veteran who's been advocating for Afghan refugees. And just listen to him tell the story. And it's just the depths of the relationships built between our soldiers and the Afghan volunteers and translators. It's just unbelievably moving.

And many of them, I've had the privilege of meeting a couple that have come to uh through will and you know they're now raising families here they're going to church here and and what the usa is doing is taking away the protected status from those refugees and which means that in many cases they're gonna have to go back to afghanistan and there's just this horrific report today from Kristi Noem where she talked about the rationale for that was that the home country was no longer a danger. I don't have the exact quote in front of me, but the home country

is safer now than it was when we gave them protected status. Really? The Taliban controlled Afghanistan is safer now? And so we judge that the danger is greater facing the white south africans that doesn't feel right on the assimilation point we've decided that the white south africans assimilate to our country better than the afghans who worked with us who

who risked their lives to try to help us in a military operation there, who've come to the country and brought their families and learned English in many cases. They've been, you know, like I said, many of them were translators for us. So you have to know both languages. I don't, it's hard for me to think of any reason that the white South Africans would be easier to assimilate than the folks in Afghanistan who have already demonstrated that they care about American values. Except, I don't know, maybe French fries? Do they eat French fries more in South Africa?

Huh. Maybe it's just that they're white. Maybe it's just that they're white. Maybe it's just that they're white? That they can be assimilated more? I don't know. But you contrast that to white South Africans and how easy it is to assimilate them.

And this fucking blowhard, Christopher Landau, is having this press conference about how low we're assimilating these people. And you know what really pisses you off? if you're not already pissed off enough about the racism if you're not already pissed off enough about just like the fucking pompous affected way in which this stuffed shirt made the case for the Afrikaners? Think about it in this context. He's saying that we have to take them because they have a real risk in their country,

the Afrikaners, and we can assimilate them. But we can't take the Venezuelans fleeing communism. And not only can we not take the Venezuelans fleeing communism, but if they have the wrong tattoo, we're going to put them on a fucking plane to El Salvador. And they are going to have more okay with no due process. But these Afrikaners, they're going to assimilate just fine. Roll out the red carpet. Have a little press conference for them. As I mentioned, Christopher Landau is a Nepo child. I checked him out. He was actually not born in America, born in Madrid. I wonder why he was able to assimilate so easily. His father was also a diplomat. So he comes from a line of diplomats, you can call what he does diplomacy. He was

previously Trump's ambassador to Mexico, had a little undiplomatic exchange on social media while he was the ambassador. A student had sent a tweet criticizing his content. Landau replied this way, apologies if I'm not sufficiently sophisticated for you with your degree in international relations obviously your great education and knowledge of the world will allow you to do diplomatic work much better than the rudimentary communications of this white foreigner he sure seems to have a chip on his shoulder about his skin color, tweeting at some random college student in Mexico about how he should be received as a white foreigner in Mexico. I got to tell you, this one sucks. And by the way, I just want to say one thing clearly at the end of this. I actually don't.

I'm sure that at least some, maybe all, of the 50-some-odd white Afrikaners that we are welcoming into this country will enrich our society in some way. This is not about any of them individually. It is about the absolutely depraved treatment of Afghan refugees, of Venezuelan asylees, of other refugees from all around the world, combined with this argument that we can only take these Afrikaners because of their assimilation abilities. That combination is un-American, repulsive, and really a stain with nothing to do with them, but the context in which they're coming into the country is a stain on the administration. And so, you know, it's a tough one. But there you go. Now you know him. Now you get to meet him. Christopher Landau. Did a late night taping on this one for you because I had to get my blood pressure up before I went to bed.

I'll be back tomorrow with the pod. We'll be talking about tariffs, talking about econ stuff. And we'll see you all then.