TRUMP SAYS HE MAY SKIP G20 SUMMIT IN SA

Wed 30 July 2025:

US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday he did not plan to attend the G20 summit in South Africa, rehashing debunked claims of white citizens being systematically persecuted and killed in the country.

Asked aboard Air Force One if he planned to attend the leaders’ summit in November, Trump said: “No, I think maybe I’ll send somebody else, because I’ve had a lot of problems with South Africa.”

“They have some very bad policies… A lot of people are being killed. So I think I probably won’t. I’d like to, but I don’t think I will.”

Trump has taken issue with South African domestic and foreign policies – ranging from its land policy to its case accusing Israel of genocide in the U.S. ally’s war in Gaza.

Trump signed an executive order in February to cut U.S. financial assistance to South Africa. In May, Trump confronted South African President Cyril Ramaphosa with false claims of white genocide and land seizures during a White House meeting.

Earlier this year, Secretary of State Marco Rubio also boycotted a G20 foreign ministers’ meeting in South Africa, which has the G20 presidency from December 2024 to November 2025.

Trump took aim at South Africa early in his second term, fixating on claims elevated by his then-ally Elon Musk — who was born in the country — of systematic persecution of white citizens.

Washington has been particularly critical of a land expropriation law signed in January that aims to redress historical inequalities from the apartheid era of white minority rule.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has rejected US assertions that the law will be used to arbitrarily confiscate white-owned land.

In a stunning White House meeting in May, Trump ambushed Ramaphosa by playing a video with reporters present that he purported showed a “genocide” against the country’s white minority.

The Trump administration has cited the persecution claims in granting refuge to South Africa’s Afrikaner minority, while the US president has also targeted the country with 30 percent tariffs beginning August 1.

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ICJ

Washington, both under Trump and former President Joe Biden, has complained about the case brought by South Africa at the International Court of Justice, where it accused Israel of genocide over its military assault in Gaza.

Israel’s assault has killed tens of thousands, caused a hunger crisis, internally displaced Gaza’s entire population and also led to accusations of war crimes at the International Criminal Court. Israel denies the accusations and casts its Gaza offensive as self-defense after a deadly October 2023 Hamas attack that killed 1,200 people and in which over 250 were taken hostage.

Diplomatic relations between the U.S. and South Africa have also been strained under Trump due to South Africa’s Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) policies to address the legacy of centuries of racial inequality.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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