President Donald Trump held a meeting on Wednesday with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, amid rampant reports of racial violence in the visiting president’s country, particularly as the United States has welcomed several dozen South African refugees looking for a safe haven.
The meeting began with standard diplomatic statements, as President Trump welcomed Ramaphosa, noting, “The president is a truly respected man in many circles and in some circles, he’s considered a little controversial.”
This bilateral meeting comes on the heels of the United States welcoming at least 59 white South Africans who have fled the country to escape violence being stirred up by anti-white leaders.
Trump said he appreciated that Ramaphosa called and was willing to come to the White House to meet, telling the press they would discuss the situation in South Africa.
SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk – originally from South Africa – was also seen standing in the Oval Office.
Ramaphosa focused on his hope that South Africa and the United States could “reset” their relationship, aiming to benefit from trade and commerce.
“It’s a real joy, and I’d also like to thank you for allowing your people to start discussions with us at a trade level,” he said.
However, the meeting took an interesting turn when a member of the press asked President Trump what it would take for him to be convinced that there was no white genocide unfolding in South Africa.
Ramaphosa interjected by remarking, “It will take him, President Trump, listening to their stories, to their perspectives.”
He was referring to the three South African leaders he brought with him for this bilateral meeting, arguing that “if there was an Afrikaner genocide going on these three…would not be here.”
President Trump strongly pushed back on this comment, stating, “We have thousands of stories talking about it and we have documentaries and we have news stories.”
At that point, Trump asked a television to be rolled into the Oval Office, ordered the lights to be turned down, and forced the entire room to watch a video interspersed with videos of South African leaders calling for the explicit murder of white people.
Ramaphosa was visibly uncomfortable as the video played.
Trump also had his staff show a video of alleged white crosses alongside a road in South Africa, which, according to the president, represented the bodies of “over a thousand white farmers.”
The South African president claimed that he had “never seen” this.
Later, a reporter from NBC asked an off-topic question about Qatar, spurring President Trump to push back on how inappropriate it was to deflect away from the horrors in the video.
Trump then displayed a stack of news stories cataloging reports of endless death and violence in South Africa aimed at white farmers.
“White South Africans are fleeing because of the violence and racist laws,” Trump said, noting that he would give that stack of stories to Ramaphosa to take with him.
On his part, the South African president said it wasn’t “government policy” in South Africa to call for the murder of white farmers, but argued that a “small minority” of racist extremists “is allowed to exist in terms of our constitution.”
Trump responded, “But you do allow them to take land, and when they take the land, they kill the farmer.”
Ramaphosa countered by saying that the “majority” of people killed via criminal violence in South Africa were black, but Trump deftly pointed out that the “farmers are not black, and the people that are being killed in large numbers” were white.
Ultimately, Ramaphosa argued that South Africa needed the assistance of the United States in order to address the violence in his country, looking ahead to a private meeting with President Trump and his team.
