White Zimbabwean Farmers Appeal to Trump Administration in Bid to Recoup $3.5 Billion Compensation
In a high-stakes bid to unlock a long-stalled $3.5 billion compensation package, representatives for dispossessed white Zimbabwean farmers are appealing directly to the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump for support. According to a report from Business Insider Africa, a U.S. lobbying firm with connections to Trump has taken on the case pro bono, aiming to tie the resolution of the farmers’ claims to international debt relief for Zimbabwe. This move seeks to leverage the Trump administration’s established focus on the plight of white farmers in Southern Africa, transforming a two-decade-old domestic grievance into a pivotal issue in U.S.-Zimbabwe relations and global finance.
The lobbying effort, spearheaded by Mercury Public Affairs LLC, is detailed in a filing under the U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). The firm’s mandate is to lobby the current administration and Congress to support Zimbabwe’s debt clearance process, with the explicit goal of creating “the funds necessary to satisfy” the government’s obligation to the farmers. This strategy directly links the farmers’ fate to Zimbabwe’s broader economic rehabilitation, a nation burdened by massive debt and under sanctions. For dispossessed farmers who have waited over 20 years for redress, this Washington-focused campaign represents a potential breakthrough, capitalizing on a U.S. president who has been vocally critical of land reform policies in the region.
The Roots of the Crisis: Land Seizures and a Broken Promise
The campaign for white farmers compensation in Zimbabwe originates in the chaotic and often violent land reforms initiated by the late President Robert Mugabe in 2000. Under the Fast-Track Land Reform Programme (FTLRP), state-backed militias forcibly seized approximately 4,000 commercial farms owned primarily by white Zimbabweans. The policy, aimed at redistributing land to the Black majority, devastated the nation’s agricultural backbone, triggered hyperinflation, and led to two decades of international isolation. While the government argued it was correcting colonial-era imbalances, the seizures left thousands of farmers without livelihoods or assets, creating a deep and unresolved wound.
Following Mugabe’s ouster in 2017, President Emmerson Mnangagwa sought to mend fences with the international community. In 2020, his government signed a landmark Global Compensation Agreement, pledging $3.5 billion to compensate 4,000 affected farmers for infrastructure and improvements on the land. However, Zimbabwe’s crippled economy has made fulfilling this promise nearly impossible. Payment deadlines have been consistently missed, and while a first tranche of 1,300 farmers was prioritized for vetting in 2024, the compensation fund remains largely empty. The farmers’ representatives now argue that without external intervention to solve Zimbabwe’s debt crisis, the compensation deal is effectively worthless.
“The services you will provide include contacting appropriate officials in the current administration and Congress to promote paying the Zimbabwean farmers,” wrote Dror Besserglik of OB Projects Management to Mercury Public Affairs in a December 2 letter, outlining the lobbying mission.
Leveraging Washington: Mercury’s Strategy and Trump’s Policy Alignment
The choice of Mercury Public Affairs LLC is strategic. The firm has prior experience representing Zimbabwe’s interests in Washington, having been paid a $90,000 monthly retainer from 2019 to 2021 to lobby against U.S. sanctions. Its understanding of the political landscape and connections to Trump-aligned circles make it a powerful advocate. Its current task is to frame the farmers’ compensation not merely as a bilateral dispute but as a prerequisite for, and a just outcome of, Zimbabwe’s economic normalization.
This lobbying push aligns perfectly with the Trump administration’s established foreign policy track record regarding white farmers in the region. Since May 2025, the administration has provided visas and assistance to white South African farmers claiming persecution, imposed sanctions on South Africa over its land reform policies, and—in a dramatic October 2025 shift—slashed the U.S. refugee cap from 125,000 to 7,500 while giving priority to white South Africans. By taking on the Zimbabwean case pro bono, Mercury is extending this political project, presenting it as a matter of justice and property rights that resonates with the administration’s worldview.
Mercury’s objective, as per the FARA filing, is to convince the U.S. government to back financial arrangements that could “generate the funds necessary to satisfy” Harare’s duties, creating a direct pipeline from international debt relief to individual farmer compensation.
The outcome of this campaign carries significant implications. For Zimbabwe, it presents a double-edged sword. While debt clearance is Mnangagwa’s top economic priority, having it explicitly tied to the farmer compensation issue could draw accusations of yielding to external pressure on a deeply sensitive national issue. For the farmers, it is a potentially viable path to finally receiving what they are owed after generations of waiting. For the United States, it represents an opportunity to achieve a foreign policy objective—resolving a historic injustice—while also facilitating broader economic stabilization in a strategic region. For ongoing analysis of this complex geopolitical and economic story, follow Africanewsdesk.net’s Zimbabwe News.
As Mercury Public Affairs begins its work on Capitol Hill and within the executive branch, the decades-long struggle for white farmers compensation in Zimbabwe enters a new, international phase. The farmers’ hopes are now pinned not just on Harare’s empty treasury, but on the willingness of Washington to make their cause a condition for Zimbabwe’s re-entry into the global financial system. Whether this high-level lobbying yields the promised $3.5 billion or further complicates an already fraught bilateral relationship remains to be seen, but it has undoubtedly elevated a long-dormant issue to the highest levels of American foreign policy.
