Donald Trump Ambushes South African President With Video on White Farmers During Oval Office Meeting

In a dramatic and tense moment during his meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Wednesday, U.S. President Donald Trump interrupted discussions to show a video allegedly depicting violence against white South Africans — a move that left his guest visibly uncomfortable.

Trump, who has previously cut all U.S. foreign aid to South Africa and embraced conspiracy theories of “white genocide,” asked for the Oval Office lights to be dimmed before playing the footage. The scene unfolded in a way reminiscent of his earlier high-profile confrontation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

As the video played — featuring images that Trump described as “burial sites” — President Ramaphosa turned his face away. At one point, Ramaphosa questioned the authenticity of the clip, saying, “This I’ve never seen,” while asking for the location of the scene.

Here is what you need to know

Just moments before the screening, Trump had been asked what would convince him there was no genocide taking place in South Africa. Ramaphosa responded calmly, saying, “It will take President Trump listening to the voices of South Africans.” But Trump dismissed that, claiming there were “thousands of stories” and “documentaries,” and insisted, “It has to be responded to.”

During the video, Trump also referred to newspaper clippings from “the last few days,” repeatedly uttering the words, “death, death, death.”

Ramaphosa pushes back

Ramaphosa clarified that the voices in the video — including that of firebrand opposition leader Julius Malema — do not reflect the policies of his government. “We have a multi-party democracy in South Africa that allows people to express themselves,” he said.

South Africa’s Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen, who is white, backed Ramaphosa’s comments. He explained that the people in the video were opposition figures, and that his party, the Democratic Alliance, had joined forces with Ramaphosa’s to keep such elements out of government.

Trump, however, doubled down, saying, “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.”

The broader context

South Africa recently passed the Expropriation Act, which allows for the redistribution of land — a move meant to address the racial inequalities of the apartheid era. Although white people make up just over 7% of the population, they still own more than 70% of the farmland.

Ramaphosa acknowledged that crime exists in South Africa, but added that most victims of violent crime are Black South Africans.

Trump, without presenting any evidence, insisted that Black farmers are not being targeted and claimed that white farmers are being “killed in large numbers” and even “decapitated.” He also lashed out at the press, accusing them of ignoring the issue, saying, “The fake news in this country doesn’t talk about that.”

A court decision ignored

Despite Trump’s repeated references to “genocide,” a South African court ruled in February that there was no evidence to support such claims. The ruling dismissed the “white genocide” narrative as baseless.

Still, Trump has used the rhetoric as justification to offer refugee status to white South Africans, a move critics say is based more on ideology than on facts.

What happens next?

The meeting has raised new tensions in an already sensitive area of global diplomacy. While Ramaphosa maintained composure, the unexpected ambush with graphic content and unverified claims marked yet another controversial chapter in Trump’s handling of foreign relations.

As debates continue over land reform and race relations in South Africa, Wednesday’s encounter suggests that misinformation and high drama will continue to cloud serious international discussions.