Trump officially appoints new ambassador to South Africa

United States President Donald Trump has officially appointed Brent Bozell as the ambassador to South Africa.

Trump took to his Truth social media platform early on Thursday to announce the appointment, following Bozell’s nomination earlier in the week.

“I am pleased to announce that Brent Bozell will be our next United States Ambassador to South Africa,” Trump said.

“Brent brings fearless tenacity, extraordinary experience, and vast knowledge to a Nation that desperately needs it.”

Bozell will replace Reuben Brigety, who resigned in January.

Bozell, from Virginia, holds a BA in history from the University of Dallas and has long been active in conservative politics.

He is a staunch media critic and founded the Media Research Center, an agency that critiques perceived liberal media bias, which led to projects like CNSNews.com.

He has strong ties to the conservative movement, being the son of conservative activists and writers L. Brent Bozell Jr. and Patricia Buckley Bozell, and the nephew of William F. Buckley Jr.

He was part of the now-defunct National Conservative Political Action Committee, and also led the National Conservative Foundation project at the Conservative Political Action Conference.

Bozell’s appointment comes amid severely strained relations between the United States and South Africa.

Earlier this month, South Africa’s ambassador to the United States, Ebrahim Rasool, was declared persona non grata and expelled from the country. He returned to South Africa over the weekend.

Rasool’s comments during a webinar—where he claimed that Trump was leading a global white supremacy movement—drew the ire of Washington.

The Trump administration has taken an aggressively antagonistic stance towards South Africa since taking over in late January, taking aim at what it perceived to be anti-American positions and policies.

Chief among these are South Africa’s race-based laws, which Trump claims discriminate against the white minority, and the ANC’s close ties to America’s enemies in China, Russia and Iran.

As a result, Trump has withdrawn billions of rands worth of funding and aid to South Africa and opened up pathways for white Afrikaner farmers, in particular, to move to the US as refugees.

South Africa, meanwhile, has done its best to respond to the fallout as diplomatically as possible, seeking ways to repair the broken relationship.

A new South African ambassador to the United States is expected in due course.