Trump ambushes South Africa's president with video footage in Oval Office
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President Cyril Ramaphosa meets with President Trump in the Oval Office on May 21. Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
In a shocking moment during President Trump's meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Wednesday, Trump requested that videos be displayed purporting to show evidence of violence against white people in the country.
The big picture: Trump, who cut all foreign assistance to South Africa, has embraced the false accusations of genocide against white South Africans as justification for granting them refugee status in the U.S.
- A South African court in February dismissed claims of a "white genocide" as not real.
Driving the news: In a stunning scene reminiscent of the Oval Office showdown with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump asked for the lights to be dimmed before playing the videos.
- While Trump watched the video, Ramaphosa looked away, appearing uncomfortable.
- At one point, speaking over the video, Trump said the screen was displaying "burial sites." Ramaphosa inquired where the scene was located, adding, "This I've never seen."
- Later on, Trump paged through articles from the "last few days" while repeating, "death, death, death."
Catch up quick: In the question that preceded the video display, a reporter asked Trump what it would take for him to be convinced there was no genocide in South Africa — an inquiry Ramaphosa answered.
- "It will take President Trump listening to the voices of South Africans," Ramaphosa said.
- Trump jumped in, saying there were "thousands of stories" and "documentaries."
- "It has to be responded to," he said before the footage began.
Context: The video played in the Oval Office featured the voice of Julius Malema, a firebrand politician and leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters, who was ejected from Parliament.
- Ramaphosa clarified that the utterances in the footage were not "government policy," saying, "We have a multiparty democracy in South Africa that allows people to express themselves."
- South Africa's Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen — who is white — reiterated Ramaphosa's point, emphasizing that the two people in the video are opposition leaders. He said his party, the Democratic Alliance, chose to join forces with Ramaphosa's "to keep those people out of power."
Trump interjected, "You do allow them to take land ... and then when they take the land, they kill the white farmer, and when they kill the white farmer, nothing happens to them."
- South Africa recently passed the Expropriation Act, which allows the government to take some land and redistribute it as part of a long-running effort to lessen the racial and economic disparities created by apartheid.
- White people make up 7.3% of South Africa's population and own 72% of the farmland.
Ramaphosa acknowledged there is "criminality" in the country — but said the majority of people killed have been Black people.
- Trump claimed the "farmers are not Black" and said, without evidence, that people were being killed "in large numbers" and were decapitated. He repeatedly lashed out at reporters, saying, "The fake news in this country doesn't talk about that."
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
