U.S. President Donald Trump announced that the United States will not participate in this month’s G20 summit in South Africa, citing disputed claims that white South Africans are being persecuted in their country. Calling it a “total disgrace” that the summit will be held in Johannesburg, Trump said no American officials will attend “as long as this human rights abuse continues.”
In a tense White House meeting in May, Trump lashed out at South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, claiming that white farmers in South Africa are being “murdered and persecuted.” During the meeting, Trump showed Ramaphosa video clips he said supported his assertion that white South Africans are victims of genocide, and claimed — without evidence — that white farmers had been stripped of their land and “executed.”
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Donald Trump shows Cyril Ramaphosa pictures of white people he says were murdered
(Photo: AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
The Oval Office meeting came just days after the U.S. granted asylum to 60 white South Africans, recognizing them as refugees. South Africa’s government accused Trump of interfering in its domestic affairs and inflaming racial tensions between the Black majority and the white minority. No political party in South Africa, including those representing white Afrikaners, has supported Trump’s genocide claims.
In late October, Trump announced that the U.S. refugee cap would drop to 7,500 next year — the lowest in American history — with preference given to white South Africans.
“It is a total disgrace that the G20 will be held in South Africa,” Trump wrote over the weekend on his social media platform, Truth Social. “Afrikaners (People who are descended from Dutch settlers, and also French and German immigrants) are being killed and slaughtered, and their land and farms are being illegally confiscated.”
Earlier this week, Trump argued that South Africa should not be part of the G20 at all. While it had initially been announced that Vice President J.D. Vance would attend the summit in Trump’s place, the administration later said no U.S. delegation would be sent. The G20 summit is scheduled to take place in Johannesburg on Nov. 22–23.
Back in February, amid Trump’s ongoing claims of white minority persecution, Secretary of State Marco Rubio also boycotted the G20 foreign ministers’ summit hosted by South Africa.
South Africa’s foreign ministry responded to Trump’s latest announcement by calling it “regrettable” and reiterated that the country rejects his assertion that the white minority faces persecution in a majority-Black nation.