Pretoria, South Africa - About a thousand people gathered outside the US embassy in Pretoria on Saturday to show their support for President Donald Trump after he hit out at the "unjust" treatment of white South Africans.

Denouncing a recent law on land expropriation and murders committed against farmers, 1,200 people took part in the rally, according to the South African police.

"It's the first time we've seen in my lifetime that a foreign president stands up for the Afrikaner people like what we've seen him do, so we have to support this," said Walter Wobben, a 52-year-old owner of a cattle farm in the Western Cape province, referring to the descendants of Dutch settlers.

Wobben handed out "Make Afrikaners Great Again" caps to the all-white crowd, which included bikers in black leather, fans of the local Bulls rugby team, and farmers wearing traditional beige shirts and shorts with leather boots.

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Trump announced earlier this month he was freezing aid to South Africa over a new law allowing land to be expropriated, in some instances, if deemed to be in the public interest. The law provides for compensation payments for landowners.

Trump's order also said that Washington would promote the resettlement of "Afrikaner refugees escaping government-sponsored race-based discrimination, including racially discriminatory property confiscation."

Between rows of motorbikes and pick-up trucks, protester Rose Basson (64), a doctor of psychology turned chess teacher, said she believes that there are "too many racial laws."

White South Africans represented a little more than 7% of the population but owned 72% of agricultural land in 2017, according to government figures. Laws passed since 1994 aim to roll back the legacy of expropriation of Black-owned land under colonization and then apartheid.