Thursday Briefing: Trump Lectures South Africa’s Leader

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/21/briefing/south-africa-gaza-russia-brazil-spy-network.html

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During a White House meeting with President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa, President Trump showed a video and waved around printouts of what he said was evidence of racial persecution of white South Africans. Trump has long spread false claims of land seizures and mass killings of Afrikaners.

While a stunned Ramaphosa looked on, Trump began flipping through his printouts, repeating, “Death, death, death.” He largely dismissed Ramaphosa’s attempt to describe the situation in his own country. While watching the video, Ramaphosa questioned the locations being shown, which he said he didn’t recognize as being in South Africa.

The meeting “was a stark example of a foreign leader essentially trying to give a reality check to Trump, who instead amplified fringe theories,” Zolan Kanno-Youngs, one of our White House reporters, said.

Context: There have been killings of white South Africans, but police statistics show they are not killed at a higher rate than other South Africans. Here’s else what to know.

Background: The U.S. is welcoming white South Africans after suspending refugee programs for everyone else. Several factors have fueled the administration’s hostile approach to South Africa’s government.