'Death, death death': Trump stages another White House ambush with South Africa's Ramaphosa on receiving end

US President Donald Trump staged yet another Oval Office ambush, this time with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on the receiving end. What started as a friendly first meeting between the leaders of the two nations turned into a public spat after Trump played a video and falsely claimed that “genocide” was being committed against white people in South Africa.

It is pertinent to note that the stunt, which took place on Wednesday, was the most tense Oval Office encounter since Trump bullied Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in February this year. Trump’s attacks against Ramaphosa started after a reporter asked the American leader about the US decision to admit White South Africans into the country as refugees, NBC News reported.

While responding to the questions, Trump baselessly claimed that there was a genocide against white people in South Africa, a claim denied by even the white groups in the country. The meeting came after both Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk questioned the country’s equity laws, which eventually prompted the US to admit white South African refugees while barring refugees from other countries.

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#FirstpostAfrica: The South African government led by President Cyril Ramaphosa, as it turns out, has landed on the wrong side of the US President Donald Trump. Trump has accused Ramaphosa's government of land confiscations and even more horrible crimes. | @Alysonle pic.twitter.com/1fYuTEfH3Z

— Firstpost (@firstpost) February 7, 2025

Ramaphosa takes it calmly

When asked about the genocide claims, which Musk first started, Trump played a montage of clips that he argued backed up his claims on a television in the room. The South African president responded calmly to the montage and said that the claims made in the video are not “government policy”.

Soon after the two leaders’ meeting, South Africa’s minister of agriculture said that multiple people included in the montage were members of minority parties that are not in the country’s ruling coalition. “We have a multiparty democracy in South Africa that allows people to express themselves,” he said.

When asked if he denounced the language in the video, Ramaphosa said, “Oh, yes.” It is pertinent to note that while the murder rates in South Africa are extremely high, the majority of victims are black. During the meeting, Ramaphosa told Trump there was no genocide against Afrikaners , a minority descended from mainly Dutch colonists who ruled South Africa during its decades of racial apartheid.

While watching the video, the South African leader repeatedly said he had not seen the footage before and would like to find out what the location was. The meeting was also attended by Trump’s South Africa-born billionaire ally, Elon Musk, JD Vance, the defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, and diplomats and journalists from both countries.

Trump did not stop here, the American leaders produced a batch of newspaper articles that he said were from the last few days reporting on killings in South Africa. He read some of the headlines and commented: “Death, death, death, horrible death.” Ramaphosa acknowledged there is a crime in South Africa and said the majority of victims were Black. Trump cut him off and said, “The farmers are not Black.”

“Now I will say, apartheid: terrible. That was the biggest threat. That was reported all the time. This is sort of the opposite of apartheid," the American leader averred. “What’s happening now is never reported. Nobody knows about it. All we know is we’re being inundated with people, with white farmers from South Africa, and it’s a big problem."

“They’re white farmers, and they’re fleeing South Africa, and it’s a very sad thing to see. But I hope we can have an explanation of that because I know you don’t want that," he added. Ramaphone pushed back on Trump’s assertion.

“We were taught by Nelson Mandela that whenever there are problems, people need to sit down around the table and talk about them. And this is precisely what we would also like to talk about," the South African leader explained. It is pertinent to note that the meeting between the two leaders came days after 50 Afrikaners arrived in the US to take up Trump’s offer of “refuge”.

Was the Israel lawsuit the main factor?

Relations between South Africa and the United States are at the lowest point since the end of apartheid in the country in 1994. Interestingly, the US has called out South Africa’s case, accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza at the International Court of Justice. After Trump came to power, he slashed aid to the country and announced 31 per cent tariffs.

Not only this, the Trump administration also expelled the South African ambassador for criticising Trump’s “Make America Great Again” (MAGA) movement. The White House has been critical of the South African land-expropriation law signed in January that aims to redress the historical inequalities of white-minority rule. However, Ramaphosa denied that the law would lead to arbitrary confiscation of white-owned land, insisting that all South Africans are protected by the constitution.

With inputs from agencies.