President Trump engaged South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in an extended and sometimes tense debate over claims of “genocide” against white farmers in South Africa, playing a video in the Oval Office to back up his allegations.
The otherwise cordial meeting began to devolve when a reporter asked Trump what it would take to persuade him that there is no genocide against white farmers, as the president and other allies have claimed.
Ramaphosa jumped in, saying Trump would have to listen to the voices and perspectives of native South Africans, some of whom accompanied him on the trip to the United States.
Trump then motioned for an aide to play a video, indicating that he and his team were ready to defend their controversial claims.
The roughly four-minute video, which the White House later shared on the social media platform X, featured clips of South Africans chanting “kill the farmer” and threatening to shoot Afrikaners.
“This is extremely bad. These are burial sites located here… Over a thousand white farmers and cars are lined up on Sunday morning to pay love; each white thing you see is a cross. “There are about a thousand of them, and they’re all white farmers,” Trump said during a segment of the video.
“I want to know where that is. “Because this is something I’ve never seen,” Ramaphosa said of the burial sites.
Ramaphosa disputed Trump’s claims that white farmers were being driven off their land and killed. He acknowledged that there was “criminality” in the country, but he pointed out that the majority of crime victims in South Africa were black.
South African Minister of Agriculture John Steenhuisen, who is white, spoke at the meeting to condemn the language used in the video.
He claimed that the individuals in the videos are leaders of South African opposition parties, and that the Ramaphosa administration has made efforts to keep them out of power.
“It’s not just a small movement; it’s a fairly large one in South Africa. So it needs to be resolved. “It will be the end of the country if it is not resolved,” Trump said in response to Steenhuisen’s comments, claiming the video showed people speaking at “a stadium with 100,000 people in it.”
“I am not here for my health. “I’m here to see if we can do anything,” the president said.
A reporter in the Oval Office inquired as to what Trump expected the South African president to do about the situation.
“I do not know. I do not know. Look, these are articles from the past few days. “Death of people,” Trump said as he read through printed online news articles. “Death. “White South Africans are fleeing due to violence and racist laws.
Ramaphosa responded, “Our government policy goes completely against what you were saying, even in Parliament. And they are a small minority party that is allowed to exist under our constitution.”
At one point, Trump mentioned that Tesla CEO Elon Musk is from South Africa, implying that he did not want to bring Musk into the debate while the billionaire was in the Oval Office behind Vice President Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
In addition, the president blamed the media for failing to report on South Africa, citing an NBC reporter who inquired about the Qatari jet gift to Trump after the video was played rather than the Afrikaner “genocide.”
“I’m sorry, I don’t have a plane to give you,” Ramaphosa said, laughing.
“I wish you did, I’d take it,” Trump said. “If your country offered the United States Air Force a plane, I would take it.”
Ramaphosa arrived at the meeting with a plan to assuage Trump’s concerns and appeal to him personally, accompanied by famous South African golfers Ernie Els and Retief Goosen. Trump is a big golf fan and frequent player, and he refers to them as friends.
Els spoke to Trump about the importance of the United States as an ally for South Africa, and Trump praised his comments.
Trump has focused on South Africa in recent months, claiming that Afrikaners, a white ethnic minority, have been unfairly targeted. In February, he issued an executive order suspending foreign assistance to South Africa due to allegations that the government there “radically disfavored landowners.”
Earlier this month, the Trump administration welcomed a plane carrying 49 Afrikaners who had received refugee status. The move raised eyebrows, given the administration’s broader suspension of the refugee program and immigration crackdown.
South African officials have denied the Trump administration’s allegations, claiming there is no evidence of genocide or persecution of Afrikaners in the country.
Before playing the video, Trump was asked why Afrikaners are prioritized over Afghans, Venezuelans, and others whose refugee status has been revoked — a point the administration has defended since the program’s inception.
“If you think we don’t accept others, just look at the southern border. … They traveled from all over the world. “In many cases, they are criminals,” the president stated. “Do not say we didn’t take them. We’re trying to get them out as quickly as possible.”
