President Donald Trump ambushed South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa on Wednesday by playing him a video that he claimed proved genocide is being committed against white people, driving farmers to flee to the United States.
The extraordinary stunt turned the usually staid diplomatic setting of the Oval Office into a stage for Trump’s contention that white South African farmers are being forced off their land and killed.
With reporters present, Trump had staff put the four-minute video on a large screen, saying it showed black South African politicians calling for the persecution of white people.
“You do allow them to take land, and then when they take the land, they kill the white farmer, and when they kill the white farmer, nothing happens to them,” Trump said.
Trump also showed news clippings that he said backed up his claims — although one actually featured a photo from the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“Death, death, death. Horrible death,” said Trump.
Trump’s administration earlier this month granted refugee status to more than 50 white Afrikaners, despite the fact that it has effectively stopped taking asylum seekers from the rest of the world.
But the South African president disputed Trump’s claims. And after initially appearing stunned by the move he stayed calm, avoiding the kind of row Trump had with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky in February.
– Awkward exchanges –
Ramaphosa denied that his country confiscates land from white farmers under a land expropriation law signed in January that aims to redress the historical inequalities of apartheid rule.
“No, no, no, no,” Ramaphosa responded. “Nobody can take land.”
He also insisted that most victims of South Africa’s notoriously high crime rate are black and said the politicians in the video were from the opposition.
The visit by the South African leader had been billed as a chance to repair relations following unfounded genocide claims by Trump and his billionaire, South African-born ally Elon Musk.
Musk, who was also in the Oval Office, has been a key driver of the “white genocide” claims.
Ramaphosa had arrived at the White House with two of South Africa’s top golfers, Ernie Els and Retief Goosen in a bid to woo the golf-loving US president.
“We are essentially here to reset the relationship between the United States and South Africa,” Ramaphosa said.
But Ramaphosa was left repeatedly trying to speak as the video played, even as Trump drowned him out. “Where is this?” added the South African president as he shuffled awkwardly in his seat.
In the video, firebrand far-left opposition lawmaker Julius Malema was shown singing “Kill the Boer, kill the farmer” — an infamous chant dating back to the apartheid-era fight against white-minority rule.
The video finished with images of a protest in South Africa where white crosses were placed along a rural roadside to represent murdered farmers — but which Trump falsely said showed their graves.
– Golf diplomacy –
At one point, Ramaphosa pleaded that they “talk about it very calmly.”
“We were taught by Nelson Mandela that whenever there are problems, people need to sit down around the table and talk about them,” he said.
The two champion golfers also sought to calm the waters when Trump asked them to speak.
“We want to see things get better in our home country. That’s the bottom line,” said four-time major winner Els.
The South African leader later tried to put a brave face on the meeting, saying it was a “great success” and that he still expected Trump to attend a G20 summit in Johannesburg in November.
He also said he did not think Trump fully believes there’s a genocide against whites despite the video.
“In the end, I mean, I do believe that there is this doubt and disbelief in his head about all this,” Ramaphosa told reporters.
Trump’s administration has torn into South Africa since the US president began his second term in office.
It has slammed South Africa’s case accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza at the International Court of Justice, cut foreign aid, announced 31 percent tariffs, and expelled Pretoria’s ambassador after he criticized Trump’s Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement.
