Musk to attend Trump's meeting with South Africa's president
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Elon Musk speaks as President Trump looks on in the Oval Office of the White House on February 11, 2025. Photo: Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images
Elon Musk will attend Wednesday's meeting between President Trump and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, according to South Africa's presidency.
The big picture: Musk, who has led an upheaval of the federal government under Trump, was born in South Africa and has been an open critic of its government.
Context: Trump slashed foreign assistance to South Africa and has echoed false allegations that white South Africans, whom he has granted refugee status in the U.S., are being subjected to genocide.
- The president's comments mirror statements made by Musk, who has promoted the claim that the country is conducting a genocide against white people.
- A South African court in February dismissed claims of a "white genocide" as not real.
Zoom out: Social media users noticed last week that the AI chatbot integrated into X, Grok, began to respond to unrelated queries with misleading claims about violence against white people in South Africa.
- xAI blamed "an unauthorized modification" for the chatbot's off-topic responses.
Catch up quick: The Trump administration welcomed Afrikaners, the country's white ethnic minority that dominated politics during apartheid, while denying protections for other groups, like Afghan refugees.
- The State Department, confirming the first group of Afrikaners had arrived to the U.S., said that their admission addresses Trump's "call to prioritize U.S. refugee resettlement of this vulnerable group facing unjust racial discrimination in South Africa."
- South Africa's Expropriation Act, signed into law earlier this year, allows the government to take and redistribute some land as part of a push to lessen disparities created by apartheid.
- Despite representing a minority of the population, white people still own a vast majority of farmland in South Africa.
Zoom in: Ramaphosa's office said in a press release that the leaders would discuss "bilateral, regional and global issues of interest" and that the visit offers a platform to "reset the strategic relationship between the two countries."
- But the high tensions between the two nations have stirred concern that the closely watched meeting could turn contentious, prompting flashbacks to the Oval Office showdown with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky.
What we're watching: The U.S. delegation, according to the South African office, also will include Vice President Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, among others.
- On South Africa's side, public officials will be joined by two professional golfers and businessman Johann Rupert.
Editor's note: This is a breaking news story and will be updated.
