WASHINGTON, Aug 22 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he had asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to "closely study the South Africa land and farm seizures" and the killing of farmers there.

"I have asked Secretary of State @SecPompeo to closely study the South Africa land and farm seizures and expropriations and large scale killing of farmers," Trump said in a post on Twitter.

President Cyril Ramaphosa announced on Aug. 1 that the ruling African National Congress (ANC) is forging ahead with plans to change the constitution to allow the expropriation of land without compensation, as whites still own most of South Africa's land more than two decades after the end of apartheid.</s>President Donald Trump on Friday announced on Twitter that he had asked his secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, to cancel a planned trip to North Korea because there had not been enough progress in denuclearization talks so far.

Trump's tweets also indicated that he holds China responsible in part for the lack of progress. "I do not believe they are helping with the process of denuclearization as they once were," Trump wrote, and claimed the shortage of help was "because of our much tougher Trading stance with China."

The Trump administration is currently engaged in an escalating trade war with China that was launched earlier this summer, when the president announced unilateral tariffs on Chinese imports. China responded by imposing retaliatory tariffs on American products, which prompted Trump to announce that even more tariffs would be put in place.

The latest round of tariffs went into effect this week, despite negotiations that were held in Washington between the U.S. and China aimed at resolving the crisis, which has roiled international markets.

Trump said in his tweets Friday that talks with North Korea would be put on hold until trade issues with China were resolved. The State Department did not immediately respond to CNBC's request for comment.

In addition to the escalating trade war with China, Trump's decision Friday likely also reflects his reportedly growing frustration with the media coverage of his administration's diplomatic efforts with North Korea, which have so far achieved little progress.

A new report this week from the the International Atomic Energy Agency said the IAEA had "grave concern" over what it called "the continuation and further development of the DPRK's [North Korea's] nuclear program and related statements by the DPRK."

Evidence strongly suggests that North Korea has continued to develop its nuclear capabilities, despite a joint statement in June from Trump and North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un, who met at a summit in Singapore, to "work toward complete denuclearization of the Korean peninsula."

The decision to cancel Pompeo's trip appears to have been made abruptly, coming just a day after Pompeo announced it would happen. It also came after Trump had reportedly sent a letter to Kim last week, urging him to stop taking steps that threaten to erase the diplomatic goodwill created by the Singapore summit.

The cancellation also raises questions about what the State Department's newly appointed special representative for North Korea, Stephen Biegun, is expected to do next.

On Thursday, Pompeo called Biegun's appointment "a very timely moment for Steve to join the team and come on board," because "he and I will be traveling to North Korea next week to make further diplomatic progress towards our objective."

— CNBC's Kevin Breuninger contributed to this report.</s>Donald Trump’s Wednesday night tweet instructing Secretary of State Mike Pompeo (better known as the real-life inspiration for the character Nelson Muntz on The Simpsons) to look into South Africa’s non-existent war on white farmers was the latest example of Trump’s long love affair with white supremacist conspiracy theories.

While many pundits assume the president’s embrace of harebrained alt-right rumors is an unapologetic attempt to appeal to his Skoal-chomping, rosacea-collared base, the truth is, Donald Trump’s willingness to discard racist dog-whistles for bigot bullhorns is part of the president’s decades-long affinity for the fever dreams of hate groups.

And nowhere is that fact more evident than on Donald Trump’s Twitter account. Since joining the social media behemoth, Trump has repeatedly shared white nationalist fantasies with his followers. It would be impossible to list them all, but here are Donald Trump’s greatest white supremacist Twitter hits.

Most people are aware that Trump is one of the founding fathers of the Tango movement (The drive to use Tang mixed with mayonnaise as a skin bronzer) as well as the Birther movement. According to the Trump Twitter Archives, Trump has tweeted or shared tweets about Obama’s birth certificate at least 22 times and has tied Obama with Islam another 68 times.

Although it merged into various kooky conspiracies including the insinuation that Obama killed the official who verified his birth certificate, it all began in 2012 with these two tweets:

In July 2016, during the heat of the presidential campaign, Trump tweeted an image of Hillary Clinton over a pile of money with the Jewish Star of David superimposed on the image, conjuring up an anti-semitic stereotype that appealed to the thousands of his followers who liked the photo.

He quickly deleted the tweet and replaced it with another image, but not before savvy internet sleuths tracked down the original image to an anti-semitic account that was also soon closed.

In November 2017 Trump tweeted three successive videos warning America of the danger of Muslims. The clips were from the far-right, white nationalist group, Britain First. The videos featured Muslims allegedly pushing a man off a building in Egypt, Muslims attacking a white Dutch boy (not the paint, a person) and Muslims destroying a statue of the Virgin Mary.

The videos were first shared by Britain First’s deputy leader, Jayda Fransen, an ultra-nationalist (which is like a white nationalist on cocaine and Red Bull) who was convicted multiple times of harassing a Muslims in the UK

7. He could have won the popular vote if it wasn’t for those meddling illegal immigrant voters.

Trump still can’t accept the fact that more people voted for Hillary Clinton than for a dim-witted dullard and his Jesus freak sidekick. So, instead of admitting that the fainting old lady kicked his ass, he spread the rumor that he would have won if not for the 3 million illegal voters no one seems to have seen except for him, one pro golfer and the people in Reddit’s alt-right room at 3 a.m.

6. But what about Chicago?

No list of white nationalist conspiracies would be complete without the inclusion of the phrase: “But what about Chicago?” No matter what atrocities white people commit, for people who have a camouflage section in their closet, it can never compare to the lawlessness and violence on Chicago streets.

According to the Rapid City Journal, Chicago has the 25th highest murder rate in the U.S.

Donald Trump might be the only person in the alt-right who believe Muslims committed 9/11. While his cohorts argue about whether it was the Jews, Halliburton, the Illuminati or George W. Bush, Trump has repeatedly claimed to have witnessed a Muslim celebration from the roof of his building in New Jersey on 9/11.

I saw it too. I witnessed Muslims having a Soul Train Line on 9/11 when I was at Sarah Palin’s home in Alaska. I was trying to see Russia but I was looking in the wrong direction.

Net immigration, both legal and undocumented, has been at or below zero for years. Immigrants are less likely to commit a crime than any other group in the U.S. MS-13 is a gang that originated in Los Angeles. Those are the facts.

Yet Trump continues to promote the baseless narrative that deadly gang members are flowing into the U.S. to rob, kill and steal. The only reason Trump pushes this unfounded racist rhetoric is to garner support for his wall-building, white nationalist, ethnic cleansing plan.

And some of them, I suppose are good tweets.

One of the most popular alt-right conspiracy theories is the idea of white genocide, that the combination of interracial sex, immigration, diversity efforts and the pervasive epidemic penis-size inequality will eventually lead to the elimination of the white race.

If you thought the number 3 item on the countdown would be one of Trump’s tweets about illegal immigration or the Diversity Visa program, I’m sorry. It’s hard to counter anyone who calls Trump a white supremacist when he crassly tweeted an account with the name White Genocide right in the handle!

My favorite thing about this tweet is that the person used the name “WhiteGenocideTM” to trademark the Twitter as if they were afraid someone would steal it and use it as the title of a sitcom or the name of a soft drink.

In 2015, Donald Trump retweeted an image that was traced back to an account whose bio said: “should have listened to the Austrian chap with the little mustache.” The image was not only racist propaganda and wrong, but it echoed a theme prominent among racists: Namely that black people are murdering white people and black people at an alarming rate.

If you’re keeping score at home, that’s a “thug,” a “but what about black on black crime,” a white genocide and a “fake news” all in one tweet!

The most insidious dog whistle white supremacist message Donald Trump has ever shared was not a tweet. It was not his “many sides” statement. It wasn’t even widely reported.

First, you need to know about the phrase held dear by almost every white supremacist group, known as “14 most important words”:



According to the Anti-Defamation League, the slogan was coined by white supremacist David Lane, who died in prison. The term is so popular that it is often referred to as “fourteen words” or simply “14.” In fact, the Nazi symbol 1488 is a combination of the 14 words and the eighth letter of the alphabet, H, for “Heil Hitler.”

Dylan Roof, who massacred nine parishioners at Emmanuel AME in Charleston, SC used a picture of 1488 scrawled into the ground as the cover photo for his manifesto before carrying out his 2015 church shooting. The phrase is as follows:

“We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children.”

On February 15, 2018, the Department of Homeland Security released a document filled with negative facts about undocumented immigrants, crime and border crossings. It listed every negative statistic about immigration it could find. The report’s title was 14 words and sounded curiously similar to the Nazi version of... well you be the judge. The document was titled:

“We Must Secure The Border And Build The Wall To Make America Safe Again.”

This is our president.</s>WASHINGTON, Aug 24 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday he had canceled a planned trip to North Korea by U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, saying progress toward the U.S. goal of a denuclearization of the Korean peninsula was too slow.

"I have asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo not to go to North Korea, at this time, because I feel we are not making sufficient progress with respect to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," Trump said on Twitter. (Reporting by Tim Ahmann; Editing by Steve Orlofsky)</s>WASHINGTON—President Trump said Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is canceling his trip to North Korea planned for next week due to a lack of progress in nuclear talks with Pyongyang.

“I have asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo not to go to North Korea, at this time, because I feel we are not making sufficient progress with respect to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” Mr. Trump said on Twitter.</s>President Donald Trump says he has directed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to delay a trip to North Korea, claiming there has been insufficient progress on denuclearisation.

The president tweeted that he does not believe Beijing is helping with the effort to rein in North Korea because of stepped-up pressure by the US on trade with China.

Mr Pompeo has appointed a senior executive with the Ford Motor Company to be his special envoy for North Korea, and said the two would visit next week.

President Trump says he has asked Mr Pompeo "not to go to North Korea, at this time, because I feel we are not making sufficient progress with respect to the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula".

Some independent assessments suggest that North Korea has actually been increasing its nuclear activity.</s>US President Donald Trump said Friday that he has called off Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's trip to North Korea that had been scheduled for next week, on grounds that insufficient progress is being made in negotiations between the two countries.

"I have asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo not to go to North Korea, at this time, because I feel we are not making sufficient progress with respect to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," Trump said on Twitter.</s>WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday abruptly canceled his top diplomat’s planned trip to North Korea, publicly acknowledging for the first time that his effort to get Pyongyang to denuclearize had stalled since his summit with North Korea’s leader.Trump partly blamed China for his insufficient progress with North Korea and suggested that talks with Pyongyang, led so far by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, could be on hold until after Washington resolved its bitter trade dispute with Beijing.

It was a dramatic shift of tone for Trump, who had previously hailed his June 12 summit with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un as a success and said the North Korean nuclear threat was over, despite no real sign Pyongyang was willing to give up its nuclear weapons.

“I have asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo not to go to North Korea, at this time, because I feel we are not making sufficient progress with respect to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula,” Trump wrote in a series of messages on Twitter.

Negotiations have all but deadlocked since the June summit in Singapore. Pompeo has pressed for tangible steps toward North Korea’s abandonment of its nuclear arsenal while Pyongyang is demanding that Washington first make concessions of its own.

Trump’s statement came just a day after Pompeo said he would again visit North Korea and would take his new U.S. special representative, Stephen Biegun, with him in an attempt to break the stalemate.

But Trump asked Pompeo not to go to North Korea during a Friday afternoon meeting at the White House, a senior White House official said.

Many key officials learned of Trump’s decision by seeing the crawl across a television screen, some of them during a meeting to discuss U.S.-North Korea negotiations, two officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Some U.S. intelligence and defense officials had considered Pompeo’s latest trip to be premature and said the prospects for significant progress appeared dim.

Pompeo, who would have been making his second visit to Pyongyang since the summit, had not been expected to meet Kim this time, the State Department said on Thursday.

Trump put some of the onus on China, North Korea’s biggest trading partner and a linchpin in the diplomatic effort, for his decision to scrap Pompeo’s trip.

“Because of our much tougher Trading stance with China, I do not believe they are helping with the process of denuclearization as they once were (despite the UN Sanctions which are in place),” Trump tweeted.

“Secretary Pompeo looks forward to going to North Korea in the near future, most likely after our Trading relationship with China is resolved,” Trump wrote. “In the meantime I would like to send my warmest regards and respect to Chairman Kim. I look forward to seeing him soon!”

In an interview with Reuters on Monday, Trump defended his approach, saying he believed North Korea had taken specific steps toward denuclearization. He said he and Kim had “great chemistry” and would “most likely” meet again.

Kelly Magsamen a former U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for Asian affairs now at the Center for American Progress think tank, said Trump was undermining his leverage with Kim as well as that of Pompeo and his new envoy.

“It’s fine to not send the Secretary due to lack of progress, but don’t then also talk about how you are eager to meet with KJU and how China is thwarting you,” she tweeted.

Christopher Hill, a former U.S. ambassador to South Korea who led past failed negotiations with North Korea, tweeted: “Looks like @realDonaldTrump has begun to worry about #NorthKorea intentions. Good decision especially if otherwise Pompeo would have returned empty handed.”

Kim made a broad, vague commitment in Singapore to work toward denuclearization of the Korean peninsula but has given no sign of a willingness to give up his nuclear arsenal unilaterally.

But intermittent talks since have made little headway, with the two sides apparently far apart on the fundamental issue of denuclearization and the U.S. demand for this before North Korea sees any relief from tough international sanctions.

On his last visit to Pyongyang, in July, Pompeo left saying progress had been made, only for North Korea within hours to denounce his “gangster-like demands.” He did not meet with Kim on that trip, although he did on his first two visits, which took place before the summit.

U.S. officials have been trying to persuade North Korea to detail the extent of its nuclear arsenal and the locations of its weapons, something Pyongyang had always refused to do in past failed rounds of talks.

Some analysts suggested Trump’s cancellation of the Pompeo trip may also be a negotiating ploy. In May, Trump announced he was calling off his planned summit with Kim, citing Pyongyang’s “open hostility,” only to reverse himself eight days later.

Trump’s cancellation of Pompeo’s trip follows two days of mid-level U.S.-China trade talks in Washington that ended with no sign of progress toward resolving a deepening trade war between the world’s two largest economies and no plans for more talks in the near term.</s>Aug. 24 (UPI) -- President Donald Trump on Friday said he asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to cancel his planned trip to North Korea, saying he doesn't believe efforts to denuclearize the peninsula are going as planned.

Pompeo was scheduled to travel to North Korea for the fourth time next week to discuss plans to end Pyongyang's nuclear weapons program. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un agreed to end the program during a June meeting with Trump in Singapore.

"I have asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo not to go to North Korea, at this time, because I feel we are not making sufficient progress with respect to the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula," Trump wrote in a series of tweets Friday afternoon.

"Additionally, because of our much tougher trading stance with China, I do not believe they are helping with the process of denuclearization as they once were (despite the U.N. sanctions which are in place)."

Trump said Pompeo will return to North Korea "in the near future."

Trump said the meeting with Kim in June was a "first bold step" on the road to denuclearization.

"The past does not have to define the future," the U.S. president said. "And as history has proven, adversaries can indeed become friends, the horrors of battle replaced by the blessings of peace."

The agreement focused largely on promoting denuclearization, while not addressing the issue of human rights that Trump stressed earlier in the year during his first State of the Union address.

Trump described the brutality of human rights abuses as a "rough situation" that may have been avoided during talks.</s>Washington: US president Donald Trump on Friday announced the cancellation of his top diplomat's upcoming visit to North Korea, while taking a swipe at China over efforts to disarm the nuclear state.

"I have asked Secretary of State Mike Pompeo not to go to North Korea, at this time, because I feel we are not making sufficient progress with respect to the denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula," Trump said in a tweet.

"Additionally, because of our much tougher trading stance with China, I do not believe they are helping with the process of denuclearisation as they once were (despite the UN sanctions which are in place)," Trump said.
U.S. President Donald Trump asks his Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to cancel a planned trip to North Korea, citing the country's insufficient progress in denuclearizing the Korean peninsula.