Trump Confronts South African President With Videos Calling for the Genocide of White Farmers

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WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 21: President of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa (2nd-R) and U.S. President Donald Trump (R) look on as a video plays in the Oval Office of the White House on May 21, 2025 in Washington, DC. Relations between the two countries have been strained since Trump signed an executive order in February that claimed white South Africans are the victims of government land confiscation and race-based “genocide” while admitting some of those Afrikaners as refugees to the United States. Trump also halted all foreign aid to South Africa and expelled the country’s Ambassador to the U.S. Ebrahim Rasool. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

During a high-profile meeting in the Oval Office on Wednesday, President Donald Trump showed South African President Cyril Ramaphosa a series of videos that depicted incitements to violence against white farmers in South Africa from his government.

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Ramaphosa was in Washington, D.C. for a bilateral discussion and a private lunch with Trump. Partway through their public exchange, Trump instructed his staff to dim the lights and present a video compilation titled “genocide in South Africa” to the meeting’s attendees, The Daily Caller reports.

The footage included various clips of political figures from a minority opposition party in South Africa making inflammatory statements that encouraged violence against the Boers — a term referring to white farmers. The montage also featured scenes of crowds chanting in support of the rhetoric, and one segment highlighted what Trump described as a burial ground containing the graves of over a thousand murdered white farmers, with their families present to mourn.

Throughout much of the video, Ramaphosa either looked straight ahead or turned occasionally to Trump, seated beside him, rather than focusing on the screen to his right.

“Burial sites. Right here. Burial sites. Over a thousand 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 are 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,” Trump narrated.

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Ramaphosa eventually shifted his gaze to the footage.

“And it’s a terrible sight, I have never seen anything like it,” Trump added.

Following the clip, Ramaphosa asked Trump about the origin of the video. “I need to find out,” he said, noting that he had never encountered the footage before.

“South Africa,” Trump responded.

As questions arose regarding the video content, a tense exchange unfolded between the two leaders.

“What you saw, the speeches that were being made … one, that’s not government policy. We have a multiparty democracy in South Africa that allows people to express themselves, political parties to various policies. In many cases, or in some cases, those policies don’t go along with government policy. Our government policy is completely, completely against what [the leaders were] saying, even in the parliament — a minority party, which is allowed to exist in terms of our constitution,” Ramaphosa clarified.

Trump interjected, “But you do allow them to take land.”

“No, nobody can take land,” Ramaphosa responded quickly.

“When they take the land, they kill the white farmer, and when they do, nothing happens to them. Nothing happens to them,” Trump said, pressing further. “How do you explain that?”

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