Donald Trump has confronted South African President Cyril Ramaphosa over violence inflicted on white farmers in his country, in another tense televised White House meeting.
The Oval Office talks produced extraordinary scenes comparable to February's stoush with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Mr Trump ordered the lights be dimmed in the Oval Office so his staff could play video clips on a large TV, including one of a far-left South African politician chanting a song with the lyrics "kill the farmer".
And as he leafed through news articles on the topic, he said white Afrikaner farmers had faced "death, death, death, horrible death".
"White South Africans are fleeing because of the violence and racist laws," Mr Trump said.
He also suggested Australia was being "inundated" with white farmers fleeing the country.
South Africa rejects the allegation that white people are disproportionately targeted by crime.
Murder and crime rates are high in the country, but the majority of victims are Black. Farmers of all races are victims of violent home invasions.
Mr Trump has previously said a "genocide" is taking place. In February, he ordered all assistance to the country be cut, and more recently welcomed several dozen white South African farmers to the US as refugees.
During the Oval Office meeting, he twice said many white farmers were seeking safety in Australia. "You take a look at Australia — they're being inundated, and we're being inundated with people that want to get out, and their farm is valueless."
The South African-born population is Australia's seventh largest migrant community, making up 2.6 per cent of Australia's foreign-born population, according to the Department of Home Affairs.
In 2018, then-home affairs minister Peter Dutton sparked debate when he said white South African farmers needed "help from a civilised country", and ordered his department to investigate bringing them to Australia. The Turnbull government subsequently said there would be no special treatment for South African farmers under Australia's humanitarian visa program.
Moment the meeting turned
The Oval Office meeting, in which Mr Ramaphosa said he wanted to "reset the relationship between the United States and South Africa", started on friendly terms.
But the tone turned after a journalist asked Mr Trump: "What would it take for you to be convinced that there's no white genocide in South Africa?"
Before Mr Trump could respond, Mr Ramaphosa intervened. "I can answer that for the president," he said. "I'd rather have him answer it," Mr Trump said.
Mr Ramaphosa then said: "It will take President Trump listening to the voices of South Africans, some of whom are his good friends, like those who are here.
"When we have talks between us around a quiet table, it will take President Trump to listen to them."
When he finished speaking, Mr Trump said: "I must say … we have thousands of stories talking about it, we have documentaries, we have news stories."
After telling Mr Ramaphosa, "I could show you a couple of things", Mr Trump asked staff to turn the lights down and turn on a television to play a prepared video montage.
"It's a terrible sight," Mr Trump said as the video played. "I've never seen anything like it. Both sides of the road, you have crosses. There's people killed."
"Have they told you where that is, Mr President?" Mr Ramaphosa asked. "I'd like to know where that is. Because this I've never seen."
Mr Trump replied: "I mean, it's in South Africa, that's where."
South African police recorded 26,232 murders nationwide in 2024, of which 44 were linked to farming communities. Of those, eight of the victims were farmers.
The High Court in the country's Western Cape ruled that claims of white genocide were "clearly imagined and not real" in a case earlier this year.
'Sorry I don't have a plane to give you'
The South African president's delegation included golfers Ernie Els and Retief Goosen, a gesture to the golf-obsessed US president. Mr Ramaphosa even brought Mr Trump a large book about South Africa's golf courses.
The tone of the meeting switched between jovial, serious and tense.
At one point, Mr Ramaphosa joked about Mr Trump accepting a gift of a jet from Qatar. "I'm sorry I don't have a plane to give you," he said.
"I wish you did," Mr Trump replied. "If your country offered the United States Air Force a plane, I would take it."
"OK, OK, but coming back to this issue," Mr Ramaphosa said, "which I really would like us to talk about and talk about it very calmly. We were taught by Nelson Mandela that whenever there are problems, people need to sit down around the table and talk about it."
"Well, there are problems," Mr Trump replied.
Mr Trump has also accused the South African government of seizing white farmers' land through a new expropriation law. But no land has been seized and the South African government has pushed back, saying US criticism is driven by misinformation.
Luxury goods tycoon and Afrikaner Johann Rupert was in the South African president's delegation to help ease Mr Trump's concerns that land was being seized from white farmers.
ABC/wires
