{"id":120937,"date":"2025-05-21T22:30:12","date_gmt":"2025-05-21T22:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/120937\/"},"modified":"2025-05-21T22:30:12","modified_gmt":"2025-05-21T22:30:12","slug":"u-s-south-africa-tension-explained-as-trump-hosts-ramaphosa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/120937\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S.-South Africa Tension Explained as Trump Hosts Ramaphosa"},"content":{"rendered":"

After months of escalating tensions<\/a> between the U.S. and South Africa, President Donald Trump hosted South African President Cyril Ramaphosa at the White House on Wednesday. Prior to the meeting, Ramaphosa expressed hopes of reaching a trade deal with the U.S.<\/a>, but the Oval Office sit-down proved to be a tense affair.<\/p>\n

Trump showed a video and printed news articles of what he said was evidence of the persecution of white South Africans. Ramaphosa vehemently denied allegations of a “white genocide,” as he has done before. A reporter in the Oval Office asked what it would take for Trump “to be convinced that there’s no white genocide\u201d in South Africa.<\/p>\n

Ramaphosa jumped in and offered to answer, saying: “It will take President Trump listening to the voices of South Africans.” To which Trump said: “We have thousands of stories talking about it [a genocide], documentaries, and news stories… it has to be responded to.” He then instructed for the lights to be turned down, so he could play a video that included footage of South African opposition leaders calling for the death of white farmers. Ramaphosa asked where the footage had been filmed, and said he’d never seen it. “We need to find out,” he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is criminality in our country. People who do get killed, unfortunately through criminal activity, are not only white people,\u201d Ramaphosa told Trump.<\/p>\n

Read More<\/strong>: Trump Pushes False \u2018White Genocide\u2019 Claims in Tense Meeting With South African Leaders<\/a><\/p>\n

The meeting came at a pivotal time, as since returning to the White House for his second term, Trump has strongly criticized Ramaphosa\u2019s governing of South Africa, continuously claiming there has been a \u201cgenocide\u201d of white farmers. Much like today, Ramaphosa\u2019s government has maintained its denial of those allegations.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a history between Trump and Ramaphosa, as this is not the first time there has been friction. In 2018, during his first term, Trump received criticism from the South African government<\/a> after posting what South African officials referred to as \u201cfalse information\u201d via social media about “the large scale killing of farmers” in the country. Trump asked then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to “closely study” the situation<\/a>, following a report from Fox News citing that the \u201cSouth African government is now seizing land from white farmers.\u201d<\/p>\n

South African officials said that Trump\u2019s assessment of the issue was a \u201cnarrow perception\u201d which only sought \u201cto divide\u201d their nation and \u201cremind\u201d them of their colonial past.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, thus far during Trump’s second term, Elon Musk\u2014who leads the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and was present during the Oval Office meeting\u2014has joined Trump as a vocal critic of the South African government. Musk was born in Pretoria, South Africa, and still holds citizenship. In February, the Tesla CEO directly addressed Ramaphosa in a post on X, saying<\/a>: \u201cWhy do you have openly racist ownership laws?\u201d<\/p>\n

In early May, Musk\u2019s AI bot Grok was found to be posting about \u201cwhite genocide\u201d in South Africa<\/a>, in response to unrelated posts and requests. <\/strong>The issue was said to be resolved within hours, and Musk\u2019s company has since stated that the issue was due to an unauthorized change to the bot\u2019s prompts from a rogue employee<\/a>, adding that the system would be updated to address the problem.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what to know about the escalating tensions between the United States and South Africa, and what led up to the emotionally Oval Office sit-down:<\/p>\n

White farmer “genocide” allegations<\/strong><\/p>\n

Trump has alleged a genocide is being committed against white South Africans, something which Ramaphosa has vehemently denied. In a video posted on X on May 16<\/a>, the South African President said: \u201cWe all know as South Africans, both black and white, that there is no genocide here\u2026 The false stories that have been perpetrated, we all know are not true, are not a reflection of who we are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump Administration officials greeted over 50 Afrikaners<\/a>, descendants of mainly Dutch colonial settlers who arrived in South Africa in the 1600s, on May 12 as they arrived in the United States as refugees. These were the first official refugees to arrive in the U.S. under the Trump Administration, after the President suspended all refugee admissions on his first day in office.<\/p>\n

Speaking to reporters about the arrival, Trump said they had \u201cessentially extended citizenship\u201d so that the Afrikaners could \u201cescape the violence.\u201d Trump told reporters:<\/a> \u201cWe\u2019re supposed to have a G20 meeting there [in South Africa], I don’t know how we can go unless that situation is taken care of. It’s a genocide that’s taking place, that you people don\u2019t want to write about.\u201d <\/p>\n

Responding to a TIME reporter <\/a>as to why Afrikaners were being accepted into the U.S. but not other refugees, Trump said: \u201cFarmers are being killed\u2026 They happen to be white, but whether they\u2019re white or black makes no difference to me. But white farmers are being brutally killed and their land is being confiscated in South Africa.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ramaphosa responded to the expulsion, calling it regrettable, but added that he was \u201cworking on straightening out<\/a>\u201d the tension.<\/p>\n

Rasool returned to South Africa to a sea of supporters welcoming him at the airport. Speaking upon his arrival, he said:<\/a> \u201cA declaration of persona non grata is meant to humiliate you. But when you return to crowds like this, and with warmth\u2026 then I will wear my persona non grata as a badge of dignity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump signed an Executive Order titled \u201cAddressing Egregious Actions of The Republic of South Africa\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

In February, Trump signed an Executive Order<\/a> pausing all foreign aid to South Africa after claiming that land belonging to white South Africans was being confiscated and they were being treated unfairly. <\/p>\n

The Executive Order cited the South African Expropriation Act of 2024, enacted in January 2025, saying it enabled Ramaphosa\u2019s government \u201cto seize ethnic minority Afrikaners\u2019 agricultural property without compensation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s statement continued: \u201cThis Act follows countless government policies designed to dismantle equal opportunity in employment, education, and business, and hateful rhetoric and government actions fueling disproportionate violence against racially disfavored landowners.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response, the South African government said:<\/a> \u201cIt is of great concern that the foundational premise of this order lacks factual accuracy and fails to recognise South Africa\u2019s profound and painful history of colonialism and apartheid.\u201d<\/p>\n

The statement referred to the U.S. resettlement programme for Afrikaners as \u201cironic,\u201d describing the South African group as one of the most economically-privileged in the country.<\/p>\n

The Expropriation Act allows private land seizures by the government without compensation<\/a>, raising concerns from Afrikaners about land possibly being taken by the state. In South Africa, roughly three-quarters of private land is<\/a> white-owned. White people make up an estimated 8% of the country\u2019s population, whilst only 4% of privately-owned land is owned by black South Africans, despite them making up an estimated 80% of the population.<\/p>\n

Trump Administration rebukes South Africa\u2019s ICJ case against Israel<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Trump Administration disagreed with South Africa\u2019s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ),<\/a> which accused Israel of committing genocide against the people of Gaza in the Israel-Hamas war.<\/p>\n

In Trump\u2019s Executive Order that cut aid to South Africa, the President said: \u201cSouth Africa has taken 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

South Africa filed its case accusing Israel of genocide<\/a> in December 2023, saying it was \u201cgravely concerned with the plight of civilians caught in the present Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip due to the indiscriminate use of force and forcible removal of inhabitants.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ramaphosa\u2019s government filed evidence for their case in October 2024<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After months of escalating tensions between the U.S. and South Africa, President Donald Trump hosted South African President…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":120938,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5311],"tags":[28423,1166,49,978,659],"class_list":{"0":"post-120937","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-news-desk","9":"tag-trump-administration","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-us","12":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114548193529486353","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120937"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120937\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}