• The president’s unfounded tweet followed a segment on Fox News on the topic on Wednesday night.

President Donald Trump on Thursday tweeted a “disproven racial myth” about the killing of white farmers in South Africa to distract from his own problems at home, the former U.S. ambassador to the country charged.

Trump — making the claims after a segment on the issue on Fox News — said he had asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to study “land and farm seizures” and the “large scale killing of farmers” in South Africa — prompting an angry response from Pretoria accusing the president of stoking racial divisions.

The South African government said Trump’s tweet was based on “false information” and reflected a “narrow perception which only seeks to divide our nation and reminds us of our colonial past.” The government said it would seek clarification of Trump’s remarks from the U.S. Embassy.

The Trump administration has yet to appoint an ambassador to South Africa, but the previous holder of the post, Patrick Gaspard, accused the president of using the issue of land seizures to distract from his domestic political problems.

“The president of the U.S. needs political distractions to turn our gaze away from his criminal cabal, and so he’s attacking South Africa with the disproven racial myth of ‘large scale killings of farmers,’” Gaspard tweeted. “This man has never visited the continent and has no discernible Africa policy.”

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Source: Alastair Jamieson, nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-under-fire-claim-large-scale-killing-white-farmers-south-n903171