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News Analysis
In a bruising Oval Office meeting, the visitors’ plan to keep President Trump from focusing on false accusations of white genocide backfired spectacularly.
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South Africans React to Ramaphosa’s Meeting With Trump
Some South Africans defended President Cyril Ramaphosa’s handling of President Trump’s false claims during a confrontational meeting in the Oval Office while others expressed dismay.
I think it was a very much necessary meeting because there was a lot of fake information going out there. I think it’s something that needed to happen for the president to be able to explain to the U.S. president. People who do get killed, unfortunately, through criminal activity are not only white people, majority of them are Black people. Ramaphosa or the team did not realize is that this is not the traditional diplomatic stage that they are used to. It’s a new type of diplomacy. And it’s a Trump show. Turn the lights down and just put this on. It’s right behind you. We’ve had tremendous complaints about Africa, about other countries too. Trump was pretty much prepared for him. The president and his team did not have a comeback.
May 22, 2025Updated 6:19 a.m. ET
For President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa, the meeting in the Oval Office was meant to be a chance to hit the reset button.
He did everything to get the mood right. He got President Trump to giggle with a joke about golf. He offered him a book. And he kept the compliments flowing, thanking Mr. Trump for providing South Africa with respirators during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“It really touched my heart,” Mr. Ramaphosa said.
In the build up to Mr. Ramaphosa’s meeting in the White House on Wednesday, South African officials stressed that they would not focus on Mr. Trump’s recent claims of white genocide, which are widely acknowledged as false. Instead they would talk about tariffs, South Africa’s valuable minerals and strengthening business ties between the two countries.
But Mr. Ramaphosa walked away from the meeting bruised and still carrying uncertainty over the future of his country’s crucial relationship with the United States. His effort to avoid the discussion of the so-called genocide and the recent arrival of 59 white South Africans labeled refugees by the Trump administration appeared to backfire spectacularly.
Now, South Africa is staring down steep tariffs, no promise of a new trade agreement and a missed opportunity to set the record straight on Mr. Trump’s continued accusations of racism against white people, who on the whole are much better off economically than the Black majority in South Africa.
“Today’s performance, if it does not lead to meaningful reconciliation, will only create more downward pressure on poor South Africans who struggle,” said Patrick Gaspard, the former United States ambassador to South Africa.
