South African President Cyril Ramaphosa came to the White House on Wednesday prepared to talk golf and trade. Instead, President Donald Trump dimmed the lights, rolled a tape and held up news clips to back up his accusations that the South African government is discriminating against white farmers and allowing their genocide.
The more than hourlong meeting grew contentious after a reporter asked Trump what it would take for him to be convinced that there was no white genocide taking place in South Africa.
“It will take President Trump listening to the voices of South Africans, some of whom are his good friends, like those who are here,” Ramaphosa said, in reference to a pair of South African golfers the president brought with him to the meeting. Elon Musk, who was born in South Africa and has accused the country of having racist laws for land ownership, was also present.
Trump, who had been rather cordial before then, began to push an issue that’s animated him for months and led to his administration allowing Afrikaners, a white ethnic group in South Africa, to come to the U.S. as refugees while persecuted people from every other nation are barred from entry.
Trump and his administration have insisted the admissions are unrelated to race and necessary due to persecution of Afrikaner farmers, including alleged targeted violence and the seizure of land owned by white farmers. While the South African government and its top court have said no such genocide is taking place, Trump spent much of the meeting focused on the topic, propping up unproven claims that many claim are based on conspiracies.
“We have thousands of stories talking about it. We have documentaries, we have news stories,” Trump said. “I could show you a couple of things.”
Trump asked aides to dim the lights and showed the delegation and reporters a video that he said backs up his claims of genocide, including aerial images of purported graves. Before the meeting began, White House campus staffers could be seen pushing large-screen monitors towards the West Wing, in apparent preparation for this moment.
“Burial sites,” Trump said. “Over a thousand. Of white farmers.”
Ramaphosa and the officials with him said they hadn’t seen the video and asked where the purported burial site was located. (Trump just replied, “South Africa.”) The South African officials also sought to distance themselves from the opposition leaders and their calls for violence.
Trump would not be swayed by arguments from the South African president.
“A lot of people want to leave South Africa because they fear they’re going to be dead soon,” Trump said in the meeting.
Ramaphosa told Trump the government was not sanctioning genocide or systematically seizing land from white farmers without compensation. Under Ramaphosa’s leadership, the South African government enacted the Expropriation Act, which allows the government to take over land without payment in some instances. White people own a majority of the land in South Africa, despite making up only about 7% of the population. And citing police statistics, the Associated Press reported that 12 murders occurred on farms in 2024.
Ramaphosa told Trump the violence was a result of gangs, not targeted attacks on white farmers.
“There is criminality in our country,” said the South African president. “People who do get killed unfortunately through criminal activity, are not only white people. The majority of them are Black people.”
But Trump wasn’t having it, rejecting that answer and saying directly that the farmers who are killed in the country “are not Black.”
Ramaphosa, who had taken great pains to compliment Trump and keep the meeting civil, focusing on overtures for trade and investment, seemed surprised at some points of the direction of the meeting
When Trump went on a tangent about unfair coverage over the jet he recently accepted from the Qatari royal family, the South African president joked, “I am sorry I don’t have a plane to give you.”
“I wish you did. I’d take it,” Trump replied. “If your country offered the U.S. Air Force a plane, I would take it,” Trump said.
The South African government is reportedly considering other steps to appeal to Trump allies as well. Musk’s Starlink project was held up because of the country’s laws, which require 30% Black ownership. Ahead of Ramaphosa’s visit, South Africa is reportedly considering an exception for Musk so his Starlink project can proceed.
The meeting calmed down once Trump began hearing from the two golf legends, Ernie Els and Retief Goosen, along with other members of the delegation. Press left the room and the meeting continued ahead of a lunch between the two leaders.
While leaving the White House later, reporters asked Ramaphosa whether he believed Trump had eventually “heard” him.
“Yes, he did,” Ramaphosa said. “It went very well.”
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Violet Jira is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow. Jasmine Wright is a reporter at NOTUS.