As part of his ambush during Wednesday’s visit of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, Donald Trump provided what he said was proof of that country’s genocide against white farmers.
But it turns out one of the photos shown by Trump during his multimedia presentation was actually taken in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which is located in southern Africa but is not a part of South Africa, the country led by Ramaphosa.
The photo, a screengrab from a video taken in February showing Red Cross workers responding after women were raped and burned alive during a mass jailbreak in the Congolese city of Goma, was part of a contentious presentation that ultimately seemed more about embarrassing Ramaphosa, who Trump claimed was turning a blind eye to a mass killing of white farmers that is actually not happening. There was little conversation between the two leaders; the meeting was dominated by Trump and his false claims.
“Those people in many cases are being executed — they happen to be white and most of them happen to be farmers,” Trump said.
The printout first appeared in a blog post from the far-right site American Thinker.
“There is criminality in our country,” Ramaphosa tried to explain to Trump. “People who do get killed, unfortunately, through criminal activity, are not only white people — the majority of them are Black people.”
“The farmers are not Black,” Trump interrupted. “I’m not saying that’s good or bad, but the farmers are not Black. The people are being killed in large numbers, and you saw all of those gravesites.”
“Death of people, death, death, death, horrible death, death,” the American president said as he leafed through pages allegedly containing reports of violence in South Africa, or somewhere.
Trump followers have clung hard to the Trump administration’s lies about South Africa, part of a wider narrative of white victimhood that also strains credulity. One photo is not going to change their mind about the so-called genocide, which paved the way for the resettlement of 59 Afrikaner “refugees,” who arrived in the U.S. last week. More are expected to follow.
“He may have got that one wrong, doesn’t necessarily cancel out all the rest,” wrote one MAGA devotee. “Similarly, when Palestinians were caught posing with dolls as babies, it doesn’t mean there are no killings taking place in Gaza.”
“Yes, it’s time to recognize that white people can get mistreated also,” she continued.
But if true, “Why spread misinformation?” asked one Trump critic, speaking for many. “We are an embarrassment,” another one chimes in.
Undeterred, supporters of the genocide narrative pointed to other parts of Trump’s case.
“Was shocking to see public speaking to such a huge audience in SA calling for and chanting about murdering people,” wrote another, referring to a video showing a far-left activist chanting a song that includes the lyrics “kill the Boer,” which means farmer in Dutch and Afrikans. Though the song is not meant to be taken literally, it was performed by a leader of the opposition party to the ruling African National Congress. “You can dance around other issues – but THAT was shocking to most people. And is factually occurring.”
“That is not government policy,” Ramaphosa said. “Our government policy is completely, completely against what he was saying.”
But MAGA was not swayed. They were also unmoved by billionaire South African businessman Johann Peter Rupert, who tried to assure the president that there was no white genocide taking place in his country. Rupert was part of the delegation accompanying Ramaphosa to the Oval Office.
“It’s interesting that my European friends have been talking about this situation for quite a while while world media has ignored it,” offered another MAGA voice. “But, hey, let’s believe the billionaire? (I thought we were supposed to hate billionaires).”
Well, not all billionaires. South African native Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and a key Trump ally, has been making the white genocide claim for several months. While he has not always used the term directly, his public statements, social media activity and the behavior of his AI chatbot have amplified the allegation against his home country, despite a lack of credible evidence.
“The burden of proof is on the accuser,” pointed out one X user. “That’s how it works. If I accuse you – for example – of killing your neighbor’s dog and burying it in your backyard, that’s called an “allegation” that must be proven to be true for you to be punished. There’s actually some order in Law & Order.”
One MAGA user went so far as to claim it wasn’t up to Trump to provide evidence of a genocide.
“So they aren’t killing white farmers? Prove it,” she countered.
