gets braaied Boerewors Summit

Trump's made-for-TV unreality show. By Richard Poplak

- Richard Poplak

ca as an investment destination. He made Trump aware that 600 American businesses flourish to varying degrees in the country, and that it remains a place replete with “critical minerals” — a term that made Trump twitch like a slumbering lion that catches wind of a buck, and may have doomed South Africa to a barrage of intercontinental ballistic missiles in the near future.

Trump seemed bored, mostly because he was. This meeting was, for him, nothing at all to do with business and the usual diplomatic niceties. Which is why, after Ramaphosa’s pitch was done, he began playing videos of Julius Malema’s greatest hits.

On screen, the lights in the Oval Office darkened for dramatic effect, a supercut of Malema singing Dubul’ ibhunu played for what seemed like an Andy Warhol film installation amount of time.

The braai had begun. And it turns out that the South Africans were the boerewors.

Flames thrown

What unfolded next was an ambush that should have been anticipated, but wasn't. Give Trump this much - he has tried to get the entire world to play along with his Oval Office slugfests, but so far only Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has been willing to stand up for himself and push back against the administration's lies.