South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa has described Donald Trump's decision to offer refugee status to white Afrikaners as 'racist', marking a rare direct criticism of the US leader. In an interview with the New York Times, Ramaphosa said Trump was 'truly uninformed' about the situation in South Africa.
Ramaphosa recounted a meeting at the Oval Office last year, where Trump turned down the lights and played a video falsely claiming a 'white genocide' in South Africa. The South African president called the encounter a 'spectacle' and an 'ambush', adding that Trump viewed the country through a 'foggy lens' and was dismissive of the harm caused by apartheid.
Since starting his second term in January 2025, Trump has repeatedly targeted South Africa, spreading unsubstantiated claims of land seizures and genocide against the white minority. In May, the US extended refugee status to Afrikaners—who historically led the apartheid regime and remain wealthier on average than Black South Africans—while cutting other refugee programmes.
Trump also refused to attend the G20 leaders' meeting in Johannesburg in November and banned South Africa from a US-hosted summit in Miami. Ramaphosa dismissed the allegations of white genocide and land grabbing, stating: 'There's no white genocide and there is no grabbing of land, of white people's land.'
The White House defended Trump's actions, saying he was highlighting 'the harrowing stories of Afrikaners' and acting with a 'humanitarian heart'. Ramaphosa expressed amazement at the attention Trump gives to South Africa, calling the country 'small' and 'no threat to the United States'.
