South African politics overtakes Oval Office visit
President Trump confronts President Ramaphosa with claims about white South Africans
WASHINGTON (Gray DC) - An Oval Office meeting between President Donald Trump and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa turned contentious as Trump repeated false claims of mass killings of white South Africans.
What began as a cordial bilateral visit in the Oval Office turned contentious at times as President Donald Trump held firm in his belief that there is a genocide underway in South Africa, targeting white farmers.
President Trump confronted South African President Cyril Ramaphosa with a 4-minute video that included clips of hundreds of Black South Africans saying “kill the farmer” and chanting about shooting Afrikaners, part of the white minority population in South Africa.
“When you look at the videos, I mean, how does it get worse? And these are people that are officials and they’re saying that, kill the white farmer and take their land.”
Ramaphosa calmly pushed back on Trump’s assertions – noting that a majority of crime victims in South Africa are Black.
“Our government policy is completely, completely against what you were saying, even in the parliament. And they’re a small minority party which is allowed to exist, in of our Constitution.”
Ramaphosa’s intent to talk about trade and better relations between the U.S. and South Africa got derailed by Trump’s focus on the situation with White South Africans.
The President has focused attention on South Africa since the beginning of his 2nd term. In February, he signed an executive order pausing all foreign assistance to the country, while expelling South Africa’s Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool back in March. And earlier this month, the Trump istration granted refugee status to 49 Afrikaners who arrived by plane to the U.S. while changing the refugee status of tens of thousands of others from other nations.
Apartheid ended in South Africa in the early 1990s, with the first multiracial government of the “rainbow nation” formed in 1994 under Nelson Mandela.
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