Chicago – May 22, 2025
A meeting meant to soothe tensions between the US and South Africa instead spiralled as President Donald Trump put his counterpart on the defensive with claims that white farmers in his nation were being killed and “persecuted”.
On Wednesday, a week after the US granted asylum to nearly 60 Afrikaners – a move that rankled South Africa – President Cyril Ramaphosa visited the White House to reset the countries’ relations.
Instead, Trump surprised Ramaphosa during a live news conference with widely discredited claims of a “white genocide” in South Africa.
He played a video showing an exhibit during a protest of several crosses lining a road – claiming they were burial sites for murdered white farmers.
Trump said he did not know where in South Africa it was filmed. The crosses, in fact, are not actual graves, but appear to be from a 2020 protest after a farming couple was killed in KwaZulu-Natal province. Organisers said at the time that they are an exhibit representing farmers killed over years.
Before Wednesday’s White House meeting, South Africa’s leader stressed that improving trade relations with the US was his priority. South African exports into the US face a 30% tariff once a pause on Trump’s new import taxes ends in July.
Ramaphosa hoped to charm Trump during the meeting, bringing along two famous South African golfers and gifting him a huge book featuring his country’s golf courses.
The meeting came days after the arrival of 59 white South Africans in the US, where they were granted refugee status. Ramaphosa said at the time they were “cowards”.
