South Africa Crowds Cheer Envoy Expelled by US

The South African ambassador who was expelled from the US and declared persona non grata by the Trump administration was given a hero's welcome on his return home Sunday, when hundreds of supporters gathered at an airport and sang songs praising him. The crowds at Cape Town International Airport surrounded Ebrahim Rasool and his wife, Rosieda, as they emerged in the terminal, and they needed a police escort through the building. "A declaration of persona non grata is meant to humiliate you," Rasool told the supporters through a megaphone, the AP reports. "But when you return to crowds like this, and with warmth ... like this, then I will wear my persona non grata as a badge of dignity."

Rasool said it was important for South Africa to fix its relationship with the US after President Trump punished the country and accused it of taking an anti-American stance even before the decision to expel Rasool. Trump issued an executive order last month cutting all funding to South Africa, alleging its government is supporting Hamas and Iran while pursuing anti-white policies at home. "We don't come here to say we are anti-American," Rasool said to the crowd. "We are not here to call on you to throw away our interests with the United States."

The public comments were the ex-ambassador's first since Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared him persona non grata over a week ago, saying Rasool hates the US and Trump. It is highly unusual for the US to expel a foreign ambassador, per the AP. "It was not our choice to come home," Rasool told the crowd, "but we come home with no regrets." (More South Africa stories.)