By Emel Akan
Contributing Writer
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa clashed during a meeting at the White House on Wednesday, with Trump presenting what he said was evidence of violence and systematic targeting of white farmers, an accusation Ramaphosa rejected.
The tense exchange occurred as diplomatic tensions grow over allegations that South Africa has discriminated against white farmers, engaged in “white genocide,” and has deepened its ties with Hamas and Iran.
“The president is a truly respected man in many, many circles, and in some circles he’s considered a little controversial,” Trump said in his opening remarks during the bilateral meeting at the Oval Office, referring to Ramaphosa.
“He called. I don’t know where he got my number, but I picked up,” Trump said, describing how the unexpected meeting came about.
A tense moment unfolded during the meeting when Trump presented videos showing evidence of “Afrikaner genocide” after Ramaphosa rejected the claims, denying that any such genocide was taking place in South Africa.
“We are essentially here to reset the relationship between the United States and South Africa,” Ramaphosa told Trump.
Prominent South African businessman Johann Rupert and golfers Ernie Els and Retief Goosen joined the meeting as part of Ramaphosa’s delegation.
“We’ve had tremendous complaints about Africa,” Trump said. “They say there’s a lot of bad things going on in Africa, and that’s what we’re going to be discussing today.”
Shortly after taking office, Trump suspended all U.S. foreign assistance to South Africa. In an executive order dated Feb. 7, the president cited concerns over “actions fueling disproportionate violence against racially disfavored landowners,” as well as “aggressive positions towards the United States and its allies, including accusing Israel, not Hamas, of genocide in the International Court of Justice, and reinvigorating its relations with Iran to develop commercial, military and nuclear arrangements.”
Trump stated that his administration would promote the resettlement of “Afrikaner refugees escaping government-sponsored race-based discrimination, including racially discriminatory property confiscation” in South Africa.
Last week, nearly 60 white South Africans arrived in the United States as the first group granted asylum under the president’s resettlement program.
Ramaphosa has been president of South Africa since 2018 and is the leader of the ruling party, the African National Congress.
This year, he is hosting the Group of 20 summit, which is scheduled to take place in Johannesburg in November. The United States has declined to participate in the summit.
“I will NOT attend the G20 summit in Johannesburg,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote on social media platform X on Feb. 5.
“South Africa is doing very bad things. Expropriating private property. Using G20 to promote ‘solidarity, equality and sustainability.’ In other words: DEI and climate change. My job is to advance America’s national interests, not waste taxpayer money or coddle anti-Americanism.”
Rubio recently reiterated that the United States will not participate in the summit, either at the foreign ministerial level or the presidential level.
U.S. foreign policy expert Michael Walsh finds the timing of the Trump-Ramaphosa meeting puzzling.
“I don’t think anybody expects that the government of South Africa has reached a point where it wants to fundamentally change its foreign policy approach. In the last month, you’ve seen the Department of International Relations and Cooperation expressing solidarity with the government of Iran,” he said.
How Relations Deteriorated
U.S.-South Africa relations have deteriorated under both the Biden and Trump administrations, with tensions escalating notably since 2022. Washington has accused Pretoria of siding with U.S. adversaries, including Iran, Russia and China.
A source familiar with internal discussions described Ramaphosa’s visit as a last-ditch effort to prevent Washington from adopting a more aggressive stance toward South Africa. According to the source, there are discussions in Washington to move toward uncoupling South Africa’s economy from the global economic system, similar to the sanctions Iran is facing.
In February 2023, South Africa conducted a 10-day joint military exercise with Russia and China along its eastern coast. The drill coincided with the anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and drew widespread international criticism.
In May 2023, U.S. Ambassador to South Africa Reuben Brigety accused the country of siding with Russia in the Ukraine war by supplying weapons. He claimed that South Africa permitted the loading of arms onto a Russian cargo ship docked secretly at a naval base near Cape Town in December 2022.
South Africa also maintains strong economic ties with China and is a member of BRICS — a bloc that aims to challenge the dominance of the U.S. dollar as the world’s primary reserve currency. BRICS, which stands for Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa, is an informal grouping of emerging economies.
In December 2023, South Africa filed a complaint at the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza for going to war with the Hamas terrorist group, further straining relations with the United States.
There is bipartisan consensus that South Africa’s actions remain misaligned with U.S. national security and foreign policy interests, Walsh said.
Ahead of the visit, Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, criticized the South African government in a Tuesday post on X.
“Ramaphosa is pivoting toward China and taking an aggressive position attacking Israel at the International Court of Justice, where he is pushing for precedents and policies that will not just undermine Israel but also expose American officials to vulnerabilities,” Cruz wrote. “I have every confidence that President Trump will demand South African officials change their policies, and will hold them accountable if they don’t.”
