Trump in 'white genocide' ambush

Donald Trump ambushed South Africa's president, Cyril Ramaphosa, yesterday by playing him a video that he falsely claimed proved that genocide was being committed against white people under "the opposite of apartheid".

- David Smith

The hectoring stunt set up the most tense Oval Office encounter since Trump's bullying of the Ukraine president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in February. But Ramaphosa - who had said earlier that he had come to Washington to "reset" the relationship between the two countries - refused to take the bait and suggested that they "talk about it very calmly".

Trump has long maintained that Afrikaners, a minority descended from mainly Dutch colonists who ruled South Africa during its decades of racial apartheid, are being persecuted. South Africa rejects the allegation. Murder rates are high in the country and a big majority of victims are black.

What began as a convivial meeting at the White House, including lighthearted quips about golf, took a sudden turn when Ramaphosa told Trump there is no genocide against Afrikaners.

Trump said "we have thousands of stories talking about it" then ordered his staff: "Turn the lights down and just put this on." Sitting next to Trump, Ramaphosa forced a smile and turned to look at a big televison screen as Elon Musk, Vice-President JD Vance, the defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, and diplomats and journalists from both countries looked on.

The video included footage of the former South African president Jacob Zuma and firebrand opposition politician Julius Malema singing an apartheid-era struggle song called "Kill the Boer", which means farmer or Afrikaner, as supporters danced.