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- Trump Broadside Embroils Leader of South Africa
Trump Broadside Embroils Leader of South Africa
TENSION IN OVAL OFFICE — Sharing a Video Echoing False Assertions Over White Genocide
Matt Davis
May 22, 2025
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Today’s lead story is about an “astonishing confrontation in the Oval Office on Wednesday,” in which President Trump “lectured President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa with false claims about a genocide against white Afrikaner farmers, even dimming the lights to show what he said was video evidence of their persecution.”
The meeting quickly became a stark demonstration of Mr. Trump’s belief that the world has aligned against white people, and that Black people and minorities have received preferential treatment. In the case of South Africa, that belief has ballooned into claims of genocide.
To be fair, there have been killings of white South Africans, but police statistics do not show that they are more vulnerable to violent crime than other people. Meanwhile white South Africans are far better off than Black people on virtually every marker of the economic scale. Does this remind you of any other countries, by any chance?
At first, the two leaders talked about golf and a bit of foreign policy. Then a journalist asked what it would take for Mr. Trump to change his mind and see there was no “white genocide” in South Africa. Mr. Ramaphosa said: “It will take President Trump listening to the voices of South Africans.” But Mr. Trump was ready with his response. “Turn the lights down and just put this on,” he told his aides.
Ruh-roh.
A booming video mash-up began to play, including footage of people calling for violence against white farmers in South Africa. One clip showed white crosses planted alongside a rural road stretching far into the distance, which Mr. Trump said were part of a burial site for murdered white farmers. The crosses were actually planted by activists staging a protest against farm murders.
By the end, with the stunned South African president looking on, Mr. Trump began flipping through a stack of papers, apparently showing white victims of violence in South Africa: “Death, death, death,” he said.
At least one of the scenes on the screen appeared to be the rallying cry of “Kill the Boer,” which U.S. officials and Afrikaner activists have cited as evidence that white South Africans are being persecuted. Boer means farmer in Dutch and Afrikaans.
The governing party of South Africa, the African National Congress, distanced itself years ago from the chant, which was popularized by the leader of another political party.
Mr. Ramaphosa said the video did not show the full picture of his country.
“We have a multiparty democracy in South Africa that allows people to express themselves,” he told Mr. Trump. “Our government policy is completely against what he was saying.”
Mr. Ramaphosa acknowledged his nation suffered from a crime problem. But…
“We were taught by Nelson Mandela that whenever there are problems, people need to sit down around a table and talk about them,” Mr. Ramaphosa said.
Nice. And as the Times reports, “the encounter in many ways exemplified Mr. Trump’s selective concern over human rights in other countries.”
Here’s the crux, the point, and the most important takeaway from the story:
While he showcased allegations of mistreatment of white people in democratic South Africa, just a week ago he traveled to three Middle East countries ruled by repressive regimes and told them he would not lecture them about how they treat their own people.
He cheerfully visited with and praised the Saudi crown prince who, according to the C.I.A., ordered the murder and dismemberment of a Washington Post journalist during Mr. Trump’s first term. Mr. Trump did not offer a word of reproach.
I’ve bolded and underlined it there because I think it shows that Donald Trump is insane.
Like, I look at footage of Adolf Hitler on drugs at a rally. Then I look at this video. I see two equally insane men. My only real concern is that Trump can do and say any of this while sober. I’d almost be impressed if he was on Elvis levels of pills and doing all of this. “That guy’s got a drug problem,” we’d all say, and shake our heads.
But Donald Trump has a brain problem. It’s within him.
In some ways the ambush echoed the February visit to the Oval Office by President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine. This time, Mr. Trump also dismissed attempts to push back on his fringe claims by those who knew most about them.
At first, the meeting began on a joking front.
“I am sorry I don’t have a plane to give you,” Mr. Ramaphosa said to Mr. Trump.
“I wish you did,” Mr. Trump replied. “I’d take it. If your country offered the U.S. Air Force a plane, I would take it.”
Ha. Ha. Ha.
But let’s remember…
“Elon is from South Africa,” Mr. Trump said, waving at the billionaire Elon Musk, who was standing nearby, close to Stephen Miller, Mr. Trump’s deputy chief of staff.
Mr. Musk has been among the most vocal critics of the South African government, and has lashed out at Mr. Ramaphosa on social media.
“Elon happens to be from South Africa,” Mr. Trump said. “This is what Elon wanted.”
Oh, no.
You’ll remember that Mr. Musk’s xAI Grok bot has been ranting about “white genocide” recently and that Musk likes to do Nazi salutes. Dude should lay off the Ketamine. And late night TV had a field day with all this.
“I mean, seriously, does anyone at the White House — does anyone around him ever say, ‘Oh, Mr. President, this one is wrong, this is not real, this one makes you look demented and dumb’? Nobody does.” — JIMMY KIMMEL
“Trump is convinced that there is white genocide going on in South Africa, which of course means there is no white genocide happening in South Africa. It’s not even mathematically possible. I mean, you’ll never run out of white South Africans when one of them is making 5,000 kids a week.” — RONNY CHIENG, referring to Elon Musk
“But still, Trump thinks there is one, and you know he cares about it because he said ‘white genocide.’ It’s like someone told him, ‘Hey, it’s not just a genocide, it’s a white genocide. You know, the bad kind.’” — RONNY CHIENG
“Trump asked some tough questions, like, ‘How did you get rid of Elon? I’ll tell you what I did. How did you do it?’ — JIMMY FALLON
The Times also ran a video piece by John Eligon, Johannesburg bureau chief, who was in the meeting. “The meeting essentially turned into an ambush of the South African President. It was really tense and it really broke down very quickly,” he said. The Times also ran a news analysis piece suggesting that Trump portraying himself as a “protector of persecuted white people” offers a “vivid distillation of his views on race.”
Not quite as vivid a distillation as this.
Never forget.
…but close.
Speaking of lies: Seven days ago the Times’ website ran this story about how the Trump administration has slashed funding to study misinformation online. Today the paper’s editors saw fit to include it in the print edition, probably for good reason.
Trump has canceled over 1,400 scientific research grants for studies exploring AI-generated fake content, foreign propaganda, and social media manipulation. Trump claims “censorship.” Democrats and scientists call it unprecedented hostility to science.
I call it insanity by an insane person. These people are insane Nazis. It is very important to acknowledge that, to share the opinion openly, and to talk about it. You cannot get around these guys by joking about their horrific plane corruption. You have to take them on directly and call them insane Nazis or people will think you might be open, in some way, to becoming an insane Nazi yourself. Don’t.
Say, is there a story that might cheer me up a bit?
Sure. Read this profile of Jeff Goldblum, 72, who says: “You know who told me never to name-drop? Robert De Niro. No, that’s not a joke.”
It seems like it must be exhausting to be Jeff Goldblum, btw.
Thanks for letting me read the newspaper so that you don’t have to.
Matt Davis lives in Manhattan with his wife and kid.
Standard disclaimer: I read the top story in the New York Times every morning so that you don’t have to. If you were forwarded this, you can subscribe here. I’m also doing a five-minute video version of this, each weekday morning at around 9 a.m. (depending on how long it takes me to read the newspaper). If you’d like to follow me on LinkedIn (you can always watch the recording later). If you subscribe to my Youtube channel it’ll also send you a notification when I’m “going live.”