Trump confronts the South African leader with baseless affirmations concerning white farmers

Washington (AP) – President Donald Trump used a White House meeting to force the South African president forcefully Cyril Ramaphosa, Accusing the country of not responding to Trump’s baseless demand on the systematic murder of white farmers.

Trump even dares the lights of the oval office to play a video of an extreme left politician singing a song that understands the lyrics “Kill the Farmer”. He also leafed through press articles to highlight his point, saying that the country’s white farmers faced “death, death, death, horrible death”.

Trump had already reduced all the assistance in the United States in South Africa and had welcomed several dozen white South African farmers in the United States as a refugee while he has pressed the case The “genocide” is underway in the country.

The American president, since his return to the office, has launched a series of accusations to a government led by the blacks of South Africa, claiming that it seizes the land of white farmers, applying anti-white and pursue an anti-American foreign policy.

Experts in South Africa say that there are no evidence that whites will be targeted for their race, although farmers of all breeds are victims of violent invasions in a country with a high crime rate.

“People flee South Africa for their own security,” said Trump. “Their land is confiscated and, in many cases, they are killed.”

Ramaphosa postponed Trump’s accusation. The South African chief had sought to use the meeting to set the record straight and save the relations of his country with the United States. The bilateral relationship has been at the lowest point since South Africa applied its racial segregation apartheid system, which ended in 1994.

“We are completely opposed to this,” said Ramaphosa about the behavior alleged by Trump in their exchange. He added: “It is not a government policy” and “our government policy is completely, completely against what he said”.

Trump was not moved.

“When they take the ground, they kill the white farmer,” he said.

Trump seemed ready to face Ramaphosa at the start of the meeting while the journalists were present. The videos were reduced to a large television to show a clip of a leader of the opposition party, Julius Malema, leading an old anti-apartheid song.

The song has been controversial for years in the country because of its central words “Kill the Boer” and “Shoot the Boer” – with Boer a word that refers to a white farmer. Malema, presented in the video, is not part of the country’s governing coalition.

Another clip played showed white crossroads on the side of a road, described as a memorial for white farmers who were killed. Ramaphosa seemed disconcerted. “I would like to know where it is, because what I have never seen.”

Trump launched the meeting by describing the South African president as a “truly respected man in many circles”. He added: “And in some circles, he is considered a little controversial.”

Ramaphosa has struck, playing in a fun way an American president who is no stranger to controversy. “We are all like that,” said Ramaphosa.

Asset delivered a decree In February, the reduction of all funding South Africa on some of its national and foreign policies. The ordinance criticized the South African government on several fronts, saying that it pursued anti-white policies at home and supports “bad actors” in the world as the Palestinian militant group Hamas and Iran.

Trump falsely accused the South African government of violations of rights against Afrikaner White farmers By entering their lands thanks to a new law of expropriation. No land has been seized and the South African government has rejected, saying that American criticism is motivated by disinformation.

The references of the Trump administration to the Afrikaner people – who are descendants of the Dutch and other European settlers – also raised the previous allegations made by Trump South African advisor Elon Musk And some American conservative commentators that the South African government authorizes attacks on white farmers in what is equivalent to genocide.

The concerns of the administration concerning South African policies have further deepened that the concerns concerning white farmers.

South Africa has also made Trump angry about its decision to bring charges to the International Court of Justice, accusing Israel of having committed a genocide against the Palestinians in Gaza. Ramaphosa was also examined on a meticulous examination in Washington for its links with the MTN group, the second largest Iranian telecommunications supplier. It has almost half of Irancell, a joint venture linked to the body of the Islamic revolutionary guard. Ramaphosa was Chairman of the MTN Board of Directors from 2002 to 2013.

Ramaphosa has entered the meeting, seeking to avoid the kind of controversial commitment that the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy Experienced during his visit to the February Oval Office, when the Ukrainian chief found himself reprimanded by Trump and vice-president JD Vance. This disastrous meeting ended with managers of the White House asking Zelenskyy and his delegation to leave the ground of the White House.

The delegation of the South African president included Golfers Ernie Els and Reatief Goosen, a gesture of the American president obsessed with golf. Ramaphosa brought Trump a massive book on the Golf Terins in South Africa. He even told Trump that he was working on his golf game, seeming to tilt an invitation to ties with the president.

The luxury product magnate and Afrikaner Johann Rupert was also in the delegation to relieve Trump’s concerns that land was seized by white farmers.

At one point, Ramaphosa called Zingiswa Losi, the president of a group of South African unions, who told Trump that he was true that South Africa is a “violent nation for several reasons”. But she told him that it was important to understand that black men and women in rural areas were also targeted in heinous crimes.

“The problem in South Africa, it is not necessarily a race, but it is crime,” said Losi. “We are here to say how we, the two nations, work together to reset, to really talk about investment but also to help … to really approach the levels of crime we have in our country.”

Musk also attended Wednesday talks. He was at the forefront of the criticism of his homeland, holding his laws on positive action as a racist against the whites.

Musk said on social networks that his Satellite Starlink Internet service was unable to obtain a license to operate in South Africa because it is not black.

South African authorities say Starlink has not formally applied. This can, but it would be bound by laws on positive action in the communications sector which oblige foreign companies to allow 30% of their South African subsidiaries to be held by black shareholders or other racial groups disadvantaged by apartheid.

The South African government claims that its long-standing positive action laws are the cornerstone of its efforts to correct the injustices of the white minority apartheid rule, which denied opportunities to blacks and other racial groups.

After the controversial exchange in front of the cameras, Trump welcomed Ramaphosa for lunch and other talks.

Ramaphosa, addressing journalists after his visit to the White House, minimized Trump criticism, adding that he believed “that there is doubt and disbelief in the head (of Trump)” on his charge of genocide. He insisted that they did not linger in Trump’s concerns about white farmers in their private conversation.

“You wanted to see the drama and something really big happening,” said Ramaphosa to journalists after his visit to the White House. “And I’m sorry that we’ve been a little disappointed with regard to that.”

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Imray reported to Johannesburg. The writers of the AP Seung Min Kim, Chris Megerian, Darlene Superville, Sagar Meghani and Ali Swenson contributed the reports.