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President Trump’s sit-down today with President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa briefly resembled Oval Office meetings of an earlier era. The leaders exchanged a handshake and cordial pleasantries. Ramaphosa even brought along a couple of pro golfers whom he knew the American leader would like.
But Trump and his aides had prepared an extraordinary ambush. In front of the television cameras, the president dimmed the lights and played a video that he cited as evidence of racial persecution of white South Africans. Trump then went on to repeatedly make claims of land seizures and mass killings of white farmers in Ramaphosa’s country.
With the stunned South African president looking on, Trump flipped through printouts that he said proved his narrative: “Death, death, death,” the president said.
Trump’s claims were false. Police statistics do not show that white South Africans are any more vulnerable to violent crime than others in the country. South Africa approved a plan similar to eminent domain in the U.S., which Trump has used to take land. Ramaphosa tried to gently explain the situation in South Africa to the president, but Trump was unmoved.
Our White House correspondent Zolan Kanno-Youngs said it “was a stark example of a foreign leader essentially trying to give a reality check to Trump, who instead amplified fringe theories.”
For context: The meeting came about a week after the Trump administration welcomed as refugees a group of white South Africans who claimed they had been persecuted in their home country. Zolan and John Eligon, our Johannesburg bureau chief, explained in this video what led to this moment.
English (US)