Within weeks of assuming the US presidency earlier this year, President Trump had waded into South Africa's domestic politics.
In May, a week after granting refugee status to nearly 60 Afrikaners, Trump doubled down when he ambushed South Africa's president Cyril Ramaphosa with claims that white farmers in the country were being killed and persecuted in an extraordinary White House showdown.
Partly in retaliation to these allegations, from August South African goods bound for export to the United States have been subject to a 30 tariff, the highest rate currently effective on the continent.