{"id":23852,"date":"2026-02-17T07:30:26","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T05:30:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/trumps-new-ambassador-bozell-arrives-in-sa-amid-strained-ties\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:34:36","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:34:36","slug":"trumps-new-ambassador-bozell-arrives-in-sa-amid-strained-ties","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/trumps-new-ambassador-bozell-arrives-in-sa-amid-strained-ties\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump&#8217;s new Ambassador Bozell arrives in SA amid strained ties"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">An embassy official told<\/span><em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> Reuters<\/span><\/em><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> on Monday that Bozell had arrived. He is expected to present his credentials to President Cyril Ramaphosa before officially taking up his post.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Relations between Washington and Pretoria have deteriorated in the last year as Trump has accused SA of persecuting its white minority, criticised its ties with Russia and China, imposed steep tariffs on its exports and cut all aid.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">SAa has not had an Ambassador in Washington since the Trump administration expelled its last one, Ebrahim Rasool.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Bozell said in his Senate confirmation hearing in October that he would approach his Ambassadorship &#8220;with respect for the SA people&#8221;, and that he saw &#8220;real opportunity for a lasting partnership&#8221; despite areas of disagreement.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Bozell said his priorities would include pressing SA to end its genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, advancing Trump&#8217;s refugee programme for white South Africans, and promoting business interests.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">The first objective could heighten tensions with SA&#8217;s government, which regards support for Palestinian rights as a core element of its foreign policy.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":15296,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-23852","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"United States President Donald Trump's pick for Ambassador to South Africa (SA), conservative activist and writer Leo Brent Bozell III, has arrived in the country where he will seek to improve fraught ties between the two states.","published_date":null,"news_description":"United States President Donald Trump's pick for Ambassador to South Africa (SA), conservative activist and writer Leo Brent Bozell III, has arrived in the country where he will seek to improve fraught ties between the two states.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/23852","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/23852\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26695,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/23852\/revisions\/26695"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=23852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}