Trump confronts president of South Africa over treatment of white farmers

: World Tribune; 21 May 2025; Hits: 8

by WorldTribune Staff, May 21, 2025 Real World News

President Donald Trump’s meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa at the White House on Wednesday began cordially, but quickly shifted gears after Rampaphosa denied there was an ongoing “geoncide” against white farmers, or Afrikaners, in his country.

A reporter asked the South African leader “what will it take for you to be convinced that there’s no white genocide in South Africa?”

Rampaphosa responded: “It will take President Trump listening to the voices of South Africans, some of whom are his good friends, like those who are here. When we have talks… it will take President Trump to listen to them. I’m not going to be repeating what I’ve been saying. I would say if there was Afrikaner farmer genocide, I can bet you these three gentlemen would not be here, including my Minister of Agriculture. He would not be with me. So, it’ll take him, President Trump, listening to their stories, to their perspective.”

Trump then had the lights dimmed in the room and confronted Ramaphosa with a video which included leader of South Africa’s Economic Freedom Fighters party, Julius Malema, calling to “shoot to kill” and “kill the boer, the farmer,” and others calling for white farmer genocide in South Africa.

The video also showed white crosses lined up alongside both sides of a road.

Trump then says: “Now this is very bad. These are burial sites right here. Burial sites — over a thousand — of white farmers. And those cars are lined up to pay love on a Sunday morning. Each one of those white things you see is a cross. And there is approximately a thousand of them. They’re all White farmers. The family of White farmers. And those cars aren’t driving, they are stopped there to pay respects to their family member who was killed. And it’s a terrible sight. I’ve never seen anything like it. On both sides of the road, you have crosses. Those people are all killed.”

Ramaphosa then asked Trump: “Have they told you where that is, Mr. President? I’d like to know where that is. Because this I’ve never seen.”

“I mean, it’s in South Africa, that’s where,” Trump responded.

“We need to find out,” Ramaphosa said.

🚨 JUST SHOWN IN THE OVAL OFFICE: Proof of Persecution in South Africa. pic.twitter.com/rER1l8sqAU

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) May 21, 2025

Earlier in the meeting, which can be seen in full below, Trump said “we had a lot of people, I must tell you, Mr. President, we have had a tremendous number of people, especially since they’ve seen this, generally they’re white farmers and they’re fleeing South Africa. And it’s, you know, it’s a very sad thing to see, but, I hope we can have an explanation of that, because I know you don’t want that.”

Trump invited golfer Ernie Els to comment. “Two wrongs don’t make a right,” Els said, referring to anti-white racism and adding that South Africa needed America’s assist to push through reforms. Fellow golfer Retief Goosen confirmed Trump’s concerns about attacks on farmers.

Elon Musk also attended the meeting in the Oval Office.

“I don’t want to get Elon involved. That’s all I have to do, get him into another thing,” Trump said. “But Elon happens to be from South Africa.”

Musk has criticized his native-born country’s government and described the conflict there as a “genocide.”

Some 50 Afrikaners were flown to the U.S. as refugees last week. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said there’s “more to come.”

Trump later eviscerated an NBC reporter who asked why the U.S. would take in white refugees from South Africa while turning away others from Afghanistan and Haiti.