Trump Hammers South African President Over Alleged Attacks On White Farmers

President Donald Trump hammered South African President Cyril Ramaphosa repeatedly over unfounded claims the country persecutes white farmers during a bilateral White House meeting on Wednesday.

“Death, death, death, horrible death,” Trump said, while pointing to printouts of alleged news stories documenting attacks on white farmers. “White South Africans are fleeing because of the violence and racist laws.”

The chaotic meeting comes as Trump has targeted South Africa in recent months, cutting aid to the country completely this past February while citing its alleged discriminatory policies and its stance toward Israel as part of the rationale for doing so. The gathering is poised to have high stakes as Ramaphosa seeks to smooth over Trump’s concerns about racial discrimination and to establish a trade deal that’s beneficial for South Africa, which ranks the U.S. as its second-largest trading partner. Already, the loss of U.S. aid has led to a $430 million shortfall in the country’s budget, and potential cuts to HIV treatments South Africa is able to offer.

The exchange over news reports marked one of many in which Trump cited different pieces of media, from video to images, that he said backed up his allegations of racial animus toward white farmers.

At one point, Trump played a clip which allegedly featured the families of white farmers displaying crosses to honor their dead loved ones. When asked to provide the location of the video, Trump was able to offer few specifics in response. According to a Washington Post report, that video was from a protest on this issue and not from actual gravesites.

Trump also played a clip of a member of a minority political party describing plans to occupy people’s land, a speech which Ramaphosa noted was not indicative of “government policy.”

Ramaphosa — and other South African officials — have vehemently pushed back on the idea that white farmers are being persecuted by the country’s government or disproportionately attacked, calling the narrative a “false” one.

White farmers are being “executed,” Trump said at one point in the meeting.

“They’re not,” Ramaphosa countered.

Trump’s comments on the subject come as conservative voices in both South Africa and the U.S. have advanced conspiracy theories about “white genocide” and the idea that white farmers have been subject to outsize violence.

Additionally, Trump has seized on a land expropriation law that was implemented by the South African government in 2024 that is designed to redistribute unused farm land. No land has been confiscated, Ramaphosa said in February.

Last week ― in line with the message he pushed on Wednesday ― Trump welcomed 59 Afrikaner refugees who said they’d been victims of racialized attacks and treatment within the country.

Currently, White South Africans remain significantly economically advantaged compared to Black South Africans. While white South Africans comprise 7% of the population, they continue to own about 70% of its commercial farmland.