The United States is putting together bags with a children’s book on so-called reverse racism, and with a document that defends the country’s founding on the basis of slavery.
Listen · 5:19 min
Afrikaner refugees from South Africa arriving at Dulles International Airport in Virginia last May. Credit...Julia Demaree Nikhinson/Associated Press
By Hamed Aleaziz and Zolan Kanno-Youngs
Reporting from Washington
June 23, 2026
See more of our coverage in your search results. Add The New York Times on Google
In the coming weeks, the United States plans to provide a welcome gift to white South Africans entering the United States as refugees.
They will get an Android tablet, an American flag and copies of the Constitution and Declaration of Independence. They will also receive a packet of literature that provides a sanitized, Trump-approved view of American and South African history, one that criticizes racial equity and civil rights laws and promotes claims of discrimination against white people.
The welcome bags include a report commissioned by Mr. Trump during his first term that downplays the role of slavery in the country’s founding, and a children’s book accusing South Africa’s government of “favoring the Black population.”
The gifts would be the latest step by the Trump administration to welcome the white minority in South Africa, even as the president maintains a ban on refugees fleeing from war and persecution everywhere else in the world.
The proposal for the bags is still being finalized. Mr. Trump’s aides have planned to give them to a group of South African Afrikaners who enter the United States in the coming weeks, according to government documents obtained by The New York Times and an official familiar with the matter.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity to detail plans that have not been announced. It is not clear how much the bags cost, or how much of the cost was being paid by taxpayers. It is unusual for the government to provide welcome gifts of this kind to refugees.
How Trump Turned America’s Refugee Program Into a Pathway for White People
Alex J. Adams, who leads the Department of Health and Human Services’ Administration for Children and Families, a government agency that helps refugees, welcomes the Afrikaners in a letter tucked into the welcome bag.
“The Trump administration understands America’s immigration system must put the U.S. citizen first, and only welcome in those who will assimilate into the American way of life and preserve our borders, language, culture, traditions and ideals,” Mr. Adams wrote in the letter, which was obtained by The Times. “To welcome you to America and help you accustomate to our heritage, we have provided various educational resources to support your day-to-day life and expand your knowledge of American history and values.”
The bags include several products from PragerU, which produces right-wing educational materials, such as a story about a Black South African who must protect a white rugby teammate from a Black mob.
Image
The cover of a booklet aimed at middle and high school students by Prager U that might be included in a gift bag for arriving Afrikaner refugees. Credit...Prager U
The story, “Lwazi’s Hard Lesson,” describes Nelson Mandela, the Nobel Peace Prize winner and South Africa’s first post-apartheid president, as a “South African lawyer and activist who sought to end apartheid with acts of sabotage.”
It teaches that the South African government’s current policies “favoring the Black population over everyone else have made race relations even worse.”
“Unlike South Africa’s Black population, the white population is declining in number,” according to the PragerU text. “As an easy scapegoat for a failing government, more and more white South Africans are choosing to leave the country each year.”
The text says South Africa’s policies have led to a “brain drain,” in which “experienced, talented people” have left. It also warns of “reverse discrimination” in South Africa, and cites the accusation from the billionaire Trump ally Elon Musk that a genocide of white people is occurring.
Marissa Streit, the chief executive of PragerU, defended the materials and extended an “open invitation” to critics of the literature.
“Our content is available to everyone,” Ms. Streit said. “We only ask that it be engaged with intellectual honesty, fair perspective and a genuine commitment to truth. We have a feeling most of them might learn something new.”
“We commend the administration for taking steps to ensure that the civic onboarding process for all new Americans is substantive, dignified and worthy of this country’s founding ideals,” she added.
Nancy Jacobs, a Brown University historian of South Africa, said the story’s description of a post-apartheid South Africa was “selective in the extreme, and even inaccurate.” White South Africans still have much higher employment rates, lower poverty rates and more lucrative wages than their Black counterparts.
The White House and the Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to requests for comment.
The administration is also planning to include in the bag a report by Mr. Trump’s 1776 Commission, which was released at the end of his first term as a part of a response to antiracism protests in 2020.
The report, written by conservative activists and intellectuals, likens progressivism to fascism, and says Americans were being indoctrinated with a false critique of the nation’s founding and identity, including the role of slavery. The report took aim at the civil rights movement, saying that it “was almost immediately turned to programs that ran counter to the lofty ideals of the founders.”
Hamed Aleaziz covers the Department of Homeland Security and immigration policy for The Times.
Zolan Kanno-Youngs is a White House correspondent for The Times, covering President Trump and his administration.