With Elon Musk in attendance, South Africa’s president counters Trump for pushing a baseless conspiracy theory about ‘white genocide’: ‘This I’ve never seen’

President of South Africa Cyril Ramaphosa (L) and U.S. President Donald Trump exchange words during a meeting in the Oval Office of the White House on May 21, 2025 in Washington, DC. Relations between the two countries have been strained since Trump signed an executive order in February that claimed white South Africans are the victims of government land confiscation and race-based “genocide” while admitting some of those Afrikaners as refugees to the United States. Trump also halted all foreign aid to South Africa and expelled the country’s Ambassador to the U.S. Ebrahim Rasool.

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