What happened
President Donald Trump hosted South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in the Oval Office Wednesday, a meeting that devolved into spectacle when Trump presented his counterpart with purported evidence of "white genocide" of Afrikaner farmers. Trump has cut off aid to South Africa over his false genocide claims and welcomed Afrikaners into the U.S. as refugees.
Who said what
Ramaphosa "arrived prepared for an aggressive reception," Reuters said, and when the lights dimmed for Trump's "carefully choreographed Oval Office onslaught" of video and printed articles, the South African president remained "poised" as he "pushed back" against the claims. Genocide allegations can "be difficult to adjudicate," but "this claim is easy," CNN said: There is "not a genocide against white farmers" in South Africa.
"Death of people, death, death, death," Trump said as he flipped through his papers, one of which was a "months-old blog post featuring a photo from the Democratic Republic of Congo," Barron's said. Video of what he said were "burial sites" of "over 1,000" white South African farmers turned out to be crosses set up in 2020 by activists as symbols of farmers killed over the years.
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The meeting was a "stark demonstration" of Trump's "belief that the world has aligned against white people, and that Black people and minorities have received preferential treatment," The New York Times said. Ramaphosa had entered the Oval Office "seemingly optimistic" about a "cordial conversation" focused on trade opportunities, and he "even tried a joke" after Trump became "irate" when a reporter asked about the "free plane" from Qatar's rulers. "I am sorry I don’t have a plane to give you," Ramaphosa told Trump. "I wish you did," Trump replied. "I'd take it."
What next?
Ramaphosa said after the meeting that he thought it "went very well." But the "extraordinary" confrontation, following Trump's similar televised Oval Office "ambush" of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in February, could "prompt foreign leaders to think twice about accepting Trump's invitations and risk public embarrassment," Reuters said.
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