Trump meets with South African president, White House plays “white genocide” video

When U.S. President Trump received visiting South African President Cyril Ramaphosa at the White House on May 21, he suddenly played a video accusing South Africa of “genocide against white people.” In this meeting, which was called an “ambush” by the U.S. media, Trump’s sudden move shocked Ramaphosa, who wanted to use this trip to improve relations between the two countries. The U.S. media described the talks as originally friendly, but then became tense because Trump suddenly played a video claiming that “white genocide” had occurred in South Africa. The video showed that South African officials called for violence against white farmers. Trump said: “People are fleeing South Africa for their own safety. Their land has been confiscated, and in many cases, they have even been killed.” Trump also took out some newspaper clippings to support his remarks. In response to Trump’s accusations, Ramaphosa refuted that these remarks did not represent the government’s position and stressed that the South African government firmly opposes any form of incitement to hatred. “We are a multi-party democratic society that allows freedom of speech, but this does not mean that the government agrees with such words.” He told Trump that in South Africa, all races have been affected by violence, with black people being the most affected. Since the beginning of this year, relations between South Africa and the United States have been tense. In February, Trump blasted South Africa for enacting a new version of the Expropriation Act, accusing the South African government of “racial discrimination” against white South Africans by “confiscating land,” and issued an executive order to cut off aid to South Africa. In March, South African Ambassador to the United States Rasool was expelled by the United States for saying at a seminar that Trump was leading the global white supremacist movement. On May 20, U.S. Secretary of State Rubio said at a hearing in the Senate that the United States chose not to attend this year’s G20 summit hosted by South Africa, whether at the foreign ministerial level or the presidential level, because South Africa has always been inconsistent with U.S. policies.