Trump accuses South Africa of genocide against white people

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What started as a friendly first meeting between President Donald Trump and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa quickly devolved after a reporter asked Trump about the U.S. decision to admit white South Africans as refugees.

Trump baselessly claimed that there was a genocide against white people in South Africa, which Ramaphosa and other South Africans have vigorously denied.

Wednesday’s heated meeting marks the latest in a string of unusually tense Oval Office meetings with foreign leaders. It comes amid heightened tensions between the U.S. and South Africa over claims by Trump and Elon Musk about the country's racial equity laws, which prompted the U.S. to recently admit white South African refugees — while barring refugees from other countries.

Musk, who was born in South Africa, has gone further, repeatedly claiming there is a genocide against white people in the country — comments that Trump eventually began echoing.

After reporters asked about his genocide claims, Trump paused to play a montage of clips that he argued backed up his claims on a television in the room.

Ramaphosa responded to the montage, which included videos of people talking about "cutting the throat" and shooting white people, saying that the comments in the videos are "not government policy." Later, South Africa's minister of agriculture said that multiple people included in the montage were part of minority parties that are not in the country's ruling coalition.

"We have a multiparty democracy in South Africa that allows people to express themselves," he said.

Asked whether he denounced the language in the video, Ramaphosa said, "Oh, yes."

Trump and Musk have claimed that the Afrikaners, white descendants of Dutch and French settlers, were targets of a "genocide" — even though there is no data to support it. The administration admitted 59 white South Africans as refugees this month after they claimed they were fleeing violence and discrimination. South African leaders have fiercely disputed the genocide claims.

"We all know as South Africans, both Black and white, that there's no genocide here," Ramaphosa said last week in a video clip on X. "We are not genocidal. We are not committing any act of hatred, act of retribution or violence against anyone."

The leaders' Oval Office meeting kicked off with Trump saying that Ramaphosa was "a little bit less respected" by some.

"He is a man who is, certainly, in some circles, really respected," Trump said of Ramaphosa. "Other circles, a little bit less respected, like all of us, in all fairness."

Ramaphosa responded, "We’re all like that," laughing.

There were 12 murders on farms last year, The Associated Press reported, citing police statistics. One of the victims was a farmer, and the rest were farmworkers, none of whom were identified by race, according to the AP. White farmers own roughly three-quarters of South Africa’s privately owned land, according to government data.

The White House has also criticized South Africa's 2024 Expropriation Act, which allows the government, in some cases, to seize unused land without compensation or when there is public interest in redistributing it (a process similar to eminent domain laws in the United States).

Ramaphosa said in February that his government has not confiscated land.

"The recently adopted Expropriation Act is not a confiscation instrument, but a constitutionally mandated legal process that ensures public access to land in an equitable and just manner as guided by the constitution," he said on X.

Still, the White House claimed that the law was a "shocking disregard of its citizens’ rights" and alleged that it followed actions "fueling disproportionate violence against racially disfavored landowners."