Camilla Jessen
During a White House meeting, Donald Trump shocked South African President by presenting a video filled with false claims.
A diplomatic meeting between Donald Trump and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa at the White House took an unexpected turn this week.
The U.S. president interrupted the session to show a video montage intended to support his claim of “genocide” against white farmers in South Africa — a claim that has been widely debunked.
The video, shown abruptly after Trump declared “lights out,” included misleading images, misattributed speeches, and factual inaccuracies.
As reported by Digi24, this action has drawn sharp criticism from journalists, analysts, and even South African officials.
A Demonstration Misrepresented as a Memorial
One clip, introduced by Trump as a peaceful “Sunday morning” scene of mourners visiting graves, was actually a protest from 2020 in Newcastle, eastern South Africa.
Demonstrators had erected white crosses to protest the killing of a farming couple — a symbolic act, not a mass funeral.
The couple’s killers were later sentenced to life in prison.
Trump did not mention this fact during the presentation.
Misleading Use of a Radical Politician
Another clip featured Julius Malema, a controversial left-wing politician from the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party, who is known for his inflammatory rhetoric, including singing the apartheid-era resistance song “Kill the Boer.”
Trump identified him as a government leader, despite the fact that Malema’s party is not part of the ruling coalition and earned just 9.5% of the vote in the most recent election.
Though the song has been condemned and at times banned in South Africa, the country’s Constitutional Court ruled in 2024 that it should not be considered hate speech, but part of the historical record of the anti-apartheid struggle.
Congo Image Passed Off as South African
Perhaps the most glaring error came when Trump presented an image from what he described as “white farmers about to be buried.”
The image was taken from a 2024 YouTube video showing Red Cross workers in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, handling body bags containing victims of war-related abuse.
The original footage was produced by Indian outlet WION using Reuters content.
The image has no relation to South Africa, white farmers, or farm killings.
After showing the video, Trump lashed out at a journalist who attempted to ask a question about a separate issue — a Boeing aircraft donated by Qatar.
“This is what this idiot is talking to me about after seeing a video in which thousands of people died?” Trump said.
What the Numbers Actually Say
Despite Trump’s claims of a “genocide,” independent data shows a different reality.
According to AfriForum, a South African organization with links to pro-Trump circles, 49 farmers were murdered in 2023, regardless of race.
By comparison, the South African Police Service recorded over 27,000 homicides between April 2023 and March 2024 — the vast majority involving young Black men in urban areas.
These numbers underscore that violence in South Africa is widespread, but not targeted in the racially motivated manner Trump suggested.
France Presse, which fact-checked the materials used, concluded that much of the content was either taken out of context or completely unrelated to the subject matter.