Donald Trump ambushes South Africa leader Cyril Ramaphosa in the Oval Office

In a tense exchange with Cyril Ramaphosa, Donald Trump made unsubstantiated claims of a ‘genocide’ of white farmers, showing a video he said included a grave holding 1000 bodies | WATCH

Donald Trump has ambushed South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in the Oval Office, demanding an explanation over unsubstantiated claims of “white genocide” in an extraordinary meeting where he played a video clip purporting to show evidence of the persecution of Afrikaner farmers.

Mr Trump used the meeting before the world’s media to promote claims of land seizures and mass killings of white farmers in South Africa, at one point brandishing a stack of news reports as evidence and slowly declaring “death, death, death” as he held the pages up to the cameras.

At one stage when the video was playing, Mr Trump pointed to the clip and said it was displaying “burial sites” for more than one thousand white farmers. He said it was a “terrible sight – I’ve never seen anything like it.”

Narrating the clip, Mr Trump said the vehicles being displayed were carrying family members who had come to pay their respects to family members who had been slain.

President Trump and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa exchange on genocide.

Q: "What will it take for you to be convinced that there's no white genocide in South Africa?"

Ramaphosa: "I can answer that for the president."

Trump: "I'd rather have him answer." pic.twitter.com/8v8hXFGmK0

— CSPAN (@cspan) May 21, 2025

Yet Mr Ramaphosa did not recognise the location and asked where it was. “I would like to know where that is, because this I’ve never seen,” he said. Mr Trump replied he did not know but added “it’s in South Africa. That’s where.”

The more than hour long meeting became tense after about 15 minutes when Mr Ramaphosa took a question directed at the US President. Mr Trump was asked by a reporter what it would take for him to be convinced there was no “white genocide” being perpetrated in South Africa.

“Well, I can answer that for the President,” Mr Ramaphosa said. “It will take President Trump listening to the voices of South Africans, some of whom are his good friends like those who are here.”

“It will take President Trump to listen to them,” he said. “I would say if there was Afrikaner farmer genocide these three gentlemen would not be here.”

Mr Ramaphosa then gestured to the delegation he had brought to the Oval Office, which included his white Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen. “It will take him (and) Mr Trump listening to their stories, to their perspective,” the South African President said.

South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa came to Washington hoping to talk trade. Picture: AP.

Responding swiftly to the comments, Mr Trump said that he had “thousands of stories” as well as documentaries and news reports showing that white farmers in South Africa were having their land taken and being killed.

“It has to be responded to,” he said.

The lights were dimmed and a video was played for about four minutes, during which South African political figure Julius Malema – the leader of the radical left-wing Economic Freedom Fighters party – called for violence against white farmers. Mr Ramaphosa clearly appeared uncomfortable and refused to watch in parts.

Mr Ramaphosa swiftly sought to distance himself from the statements in the video. “Let me clarify that because what you saw, the speeches that were being made, one, that is not government policy,” Mr Ramaphosa said. “We have a multiparty democracy in South Africa that allows people to express themselves, political parties to adhere to various policies.”

“And in many cases, or in some cases, those policies do not go along with government policy. Our government policy is completely, completely against what he was saying – even in the parliament. And they are a small minority party, which is allowed to exist in terms of our constitution.”

Mr Trump interjected, saying that “but you do allow them to take land … and when you take the land, they kill the white farmer. And when they kill the white farmer, nothing happens to them.”

Mr Ramaphosa responded by saying: “No, no. There is criminality in our country. People who do get killed unfortunately through criminality are not only white people. The majority of them are black people.”

Mr Trump said: “The farmers are not black … You saw all those grave sites.” He said people had “their heads chopped off” and “died violently.”

The displaying of the video derailed a meeting for which Mr Ramaphosa had clearly made meticulous preparations, including turning to golf diplomacy to help establish stronger ties with the new administration in Washington.

Before the issue of white genocide was raised, Mr Ramaphosa had spoken clearly about his desire to bolster trade ties and deepening engagement with America. He wanted a reset.

The confrontation with Cyril Ramaphosa was reminiscent of Donald Trump’s testy Oval Office meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Picture: AP.

He had also brought representatives from government, business and the trade union movement with him to America – including golfing legends Ernie Els and Retief Goosen. He even presented the US President with a book showcasing South African golf courses.

“We are here to essentially reset the relationship between the United States and South Africa,” he said. “We are long, long standing partners in many, many ways. We have collaborated in many fields,” he said. “We want to advance more trade between the two of us, our two countries and our people now have been empowered by yourself and by myself, to start engaging.”

He said that South Africa had critical minerals that could help fuel the growth of the American economy and help it reindustrialise – one of Mr Trump’s goals – and thanked the US President for helping his country during the pandemic by providing it with respirators.

But Mr Trump said that he had heard “tremendous complaints about Africa, about other countries too from people. They say there’s a lot of bad things going on in Africa.”

“And this is what we are going to be discussing today,” the US President said. “A lot of people are really very concerned with regard to South Africa, and that’s really the purpose of the meeting. We’ll see how that turns out.”

“But we have many people that feel they are being persecuted. And they are coming to the United States. We take from many locations if we feel there’s persecution or genocide going on,” he added.

“Generally they are white farmers and they are fleeing South Africa. It’s a very sad thing to see,” Mr Trump said, “I hope we can have an explanation of that because I know you don’t want that.”

Asked later in the meeting what he wanted done about the treatment of white farmers in South Africa, Mr Trump said “I don’t know.”

Mr Ramaphosa said the US President was “raising concerns” but made clear he still viewed America as a partner of South Africa. “And these are concerns that we are willing to talk to you about.”