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Donald Trump ambushes South African president at White House meeting by playing video alleging ‘genocide’

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Donald Trump has ambushed South Africa’s president during a White House meeting by playing a video purportedly showing evidence of a “genocide” of white farmers in the African country.

The US president, who was hosting leader Cyril Ramaphosa in the Oval Office, said the footage showed the graves of more than a thousand white farmers and “it’s a terrible sight… I’ve never seen anything like it. Those people are all killed”.

After an initial friendly chat where Mr Trump complimented South African golfers in the room, a montage of clips was played as Mr Ramaphosa sat quietly and mostly expressionless. He later said: “I’d like to know where that is because this [the alleged burial site in the video] I’ve never seen”.

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Donald Trump met Cyril Ramaphosa in the Oval Office. Pic: AP

The lights were dimmed in the Oval Office as the clips were shown, including of South African officials allegedly calling for violence against white farmers.

The scene in the heart of the White House administration was reminiscent of Mr Trump’s ambush of Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in February.

But later, as he left after around three hours at the White House, Mr Ramaphosa insisted his meeting with Mr Trump went “very well”.

And he told a news conference: “There is just no genocide in South Africa.”

The White House’s official account on X posted the footage that was shown in the Oval Office, saying it was “proof of persecution in South Africa”.

South Africa has rejected the allegation that white people are disproportionately targeted by crime.

The clips included one of communist politician Julius Malema playing a controversial anti-apartheid song that includes lyrics about killing a farmer.

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Mr Trump accused South Africa of failing to address the killing of white farmers.

“We have many people that feel they’re being persecuted, and they’re coming to the United States. So we take from many… locations, if we feel there’s persecution or genocide going on,” the US president said, referring specifically to white farmers.

He added: “People are fleeing South Africa for their own safety. Their land is being confiscated and in many cases they’re being killed.”

Alluding to people in the clips, Mr Trump said: “These are people that are officials and they’re saying… kill the white farmer and take their land.”

The US president then displayed printed copies of news articles that he said showed white South Africans who had been killed, saying “death, death” as he flipped through them.

He added of one article: “Here’s burial sites all over the place, these are all white farmers that are being buried.”

Image:
Mr Trump held up news articles. Pic: AP

South African leader rejects allegations

Mr Ramaphosa pushed back against Mr Trump’s accusations, by responding: “What you saw, the speeches that were being made, that is not government policy. We have a multi-party democracy in South Africa that allows people to express themselves, political parties to adhere to various policies.

“And in many cases, or in some cases, those policies do not go along with government policy.

“Our government policy is completely, completely against what he [a person in the video montage] was saying, even in the parliament. And they are a small minority party which is allowed to exist in terms of our constitution.”

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An uncomfortable meeting where facts were dismissed as a difference in opinion

The screens, the visuals and President Trump’s foreshadowing mentions of a “bloodbath” all point to one thing – this ambush was planned.

As the yells of anguish and violent rhetoric echoed in the Oval Office, President Ramaphosa craned his neck with a stern expression to watch the “evidence” of a repeatedly disproven “white genocide” in his country.

He interjected only to question the location of the videos – to which Mr Trump replied, almost with a “duh” tone of voice, “South Africa” – and then pushed on to direct his team to verify them.

That was the singular point of outright defiance from South Africa’s leader in an uncomfortable meeting where facts were dismissed as a difference in opinion and outdated videos were played as breaking news.

For the rest of the meeting, Nelson Mandela’s former chief negotiator kept calm and played the charm offensive – appealing to Mr Trump’s ego at every sharp turn while maintaining that black South Africans are disproportionately impacted by the country’s harrowing murder rate.

The charm and calm may seem like dull knives in this sword fight but are necessary for peacekeeping in a meeting where £6bn in trade hangs in the balance.

South Africa has the most to lose in the deteriorating bilateral relations.

In just five months, the Trump administration has cut off vital humanitarian aid, including HIV assistance of which South Africa is the biggest beneficiary; expelled South Africa’s ambassador; and offered white South Africans refugee status as millions of black Africans suffer across the continent.

The potential futility of Mr Ramaphosa’s strategy came into vision as cameras panned to the back of the Oval Office at the end of the meeting to show a stony-faced Elon Musk.

The false claims of white genocide Musk has championed on X are now a powder keg in US-South African relations, as he works to get Starlink licensed in his home country. A business strategy that even South Africa’s iconic negotiator may not be able to contend with.

Mr Ramaphosa also said of the behaviour alleged by Mr Trump: “We are completely opposed to that.”

The South African leader said there was crime in his country, and the majority of victims were black. Mr Trump cut him off and said: “The farmers are not black.” The South African president responded: “These are concerns we are willing to talk to you about.”

Image:
Mr Trump and Mr Ramaphosa looked towards a screen where a video was played. Pic: Reuters

Image:
The video was shown during the White House meeting. Pic: AP

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In February, Mr Trump issued an executive order which cut all funding to South Africa over some of its domestic and foreign policies. He also expelled South Africa’s ambassador and offered refuge to white minority Afrikaners based on racial discrimination claims which Pretoria says are baseless.

Experts in South Africa have said there is no evidence of white people being targeted, although farmers of all races are victims of violent home invasions in a country that suffers from a very high crime rate.

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