Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool was right, of course. Of all the factors contributing to US President Donald Trump’s rise, white distemper amid demographic change sticks out like the Voortrekker Monument on the way to Pretoria. 

It’s a distemper Trump stirs and exploits. That is surely beyond dispute, notwithstanding his stronger-than-expected showing among black and Hispanic voters last November. I doubt there are many diplomats in Washington who would privately disagree, or whose cables to head office have not in some way made the same point in assessing the Maga phenomenon. ..

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