A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa was in the Oval Office yesterday.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRESIDENT CYRIL RAMAPHOSA: We are essentially here to reset the relationship between the United States and South Africa.
MARTÍNEZ: But President Trump had a very different idea in mind. Here's NPR White House correspondent Deepa Shivaram.
DEEPA SHIVARAM, BYLINE: The conversation started off in a pretty friendly way, but the relationship between the two countries hasn't been this strained since apartheid. And when reporters started asking questions about it, that prompted President Trump to do something unusual.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Turn the lights down. Turn the lights down and just put this on. It's right behind you.
SHIVARAM: It was a four-minute video with clips of a South African leader from a minority party singing an apartheid-era song called "Kill The Boer," which translates to farmer. And Trump had a big stack of articles, too.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
TRUMP: Death. Death. Death. Horrible death.
SHIVARAM: Trump was trying to bolster his false claim that there's a, quote, "genocide" against white farmers going on in South Africa. It's a group of people he's welcomed to the U.S. as refugees, despite shutting out people from other countries. White people are a minority in South Africa, but they own a large majority of the farmland. Recent data from the end of 2024 shows that there were just 12 murders linked to farming communities, and those most likely include Black laborers. President Ramaphosa tried to push back.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
TRUMP: But you do allow them to take land.
RAMAPHOSA: No, no, no, no.
TRUMP: You do allow them to take land.
RAMAPHOSA: Nobody can take land.
TRUMP: And then when they take the land, they kill the white farmer. And when they kill the white farmer, nothing happens to them.
RAMAPHOSA: No, no. There is quite...
TRUMP: Nothing happens.
SHIVARAM: Ramaphosa said Trump needed to listen to the voices of South Africa, and he brought three guests along to make his point, including golfer Ernie Els and South Africa's richest man, Johann Rupert, who are friends of Trump.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
RAMAPHOSA: If there was Afrikaner farmer genocide, I can bet you these three gentlemen would not be here.
SHIVARAM: Ramaphosa remained calm during the hourlong ambush. It was a much different scene than the blowout meeting in February between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, which ended abruptly. Zelenskyy was asked to leave. Ramaphosa said he hopes the U.S. and South Africa can increase trade. He also made clear he wants to see Trump at the G20 Summit in Johannesburg later this year. Trump was noncommittal.
Deepa Shivaram, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
