One of South Africa’s most respected newspapers bashed President Donald Trump on Wednesday for blindsiding the country’s leader during an Oval Office meeting.
“U.S. president Donald Trump blindsided his counterpart President Cyril Ramaphosa during their meeting in the White House’s Oval Office by playing a montage of video clips of EFF leader Julius Malema singing about killing white people,” The Sunday Times noted.
The EFF, or Economic Freedom Fighters, are a South African self-proclaimed “radical and militant movement.”
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According to The Times, “Ramaphosa had just told Trump that he would allow, in their private meeting, his delegation… to explain to him that there was no white genocide in the country.”
But instead of giving them a moment to speak their piece, he randomly “jumped in” and directed that a “video clip be played.”
Then, the lights dimmed and a selection of the Malema videos was played.
Trump has been pushing the “false white genocide narrative,” according to The Times, which is the unsubstantiated idea that “thousands” of white Afrikaner farmers are desperate to seek asylum in the United States due to fears of “white genocide.”
The most recent South African official data shows that the country had 19,696 murders from April 2024 to December 2024. Only seven of those murdered were farmers.
Before meeting with Ramaphosa, Trump promised him that he would allow his delegation the chance to disprove his claims. The delegation included his minister of agriculture and Democratic Alliance leader John Steenhuisen, billionaire Johann Rupert, and golfer Ernie Else, all of whom are white.
But they weren’t given the opportunity to speak their minds. Instead, the South African group was completely caught off guard.
“It will take President Trump listening to the voices of South Africans, some of whom are his good friends like those who are here,” Ramaphosa insisted. ”But when we have talks between us around a quiet table 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.”
He continued: “So it would take him, President Trump, listening to their stories, to their perspectives, that is the answer to your question.”
Despite Trump’s mass immigration crackdown, which has largely defined the first few months of his presidency, he began granting white Afrikaners entry to the country last month.
“Mission South Africa” is the administration’s program aimed at assisting white South Africans in relocating to the U.S., even as the president rejects individuals from war-torn countries.
Trump has largely followed the lead of Elon Musk, who was born in South Africa and has since become a U.S. citizen, on the matter. The Tesla CEO and fellow billionaire has been a close adviser to the president since his inauguration, and has long voiced concerns over his home country’s treatment of white farmers.
