Donald Trump has once again publicly embarrassed a foreign leader. During a meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa – which was intended to improve relations with the United States – he showed controversial images.
During a meeting with Ramaphosa, the American president asked for a video to be played on a screen in the Oval Office. It concerned controversial images of black South Africans talking about genocide.
Ramaphosa came to the White House to talk about trade and important minerals in an attempt to gain American support for South Africa, writes BBC News. Instead, he was confronted with images that were said to show that white residents were being affected by genocide. These claims have not been proven.
While Ramaphosa was taken by surprise, Vice President JD Vance, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, and South African-born billionaire Elon Musk watched. But Ramaphosa stood his ground and did not react while watching the images. After the video, he asked Trump where the images take place. “I would like to know where this is, because I have never seen this.”
According to Trump, the video comes from South Africa. He called the images a “terrible sight.” He also gave Ramaphosa printed articles about what he said were recent murders of white South Africans. Ramaphosa then stated that more black South Africans are still being murdered.
Relationship between the US and South Africa Has Deteriorated Since Trump Came to Power
After a tit-for-tat discussion about expropriating land from white farmers, Ramaphosa said in a calm manner that he wanted to talk about American concerns.
At the start of the meeting, the South African president had called for “a reset” of relations with the US. It has deteriorated since Trump took office. The US has frozen most aid to the country, imposed import duties and expelled the ambassador.
According to the BBC, it is not clear what the consequence of the confrontation is. Nevertheless, Ramaphosa emphasized afterwards that he had “very good discussions” on a range of bilateral issues. For example, according to him, they spoke about Trump’s import duties, American investments and the G20 summit in South Africa. Ramaphosa expects Trump to come.