WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump turned down the lights in the Oval Office on Wednesday and made South African President Cyril Ramaphosa the target of his latest geopolitical ambush of a foreign leader in front of television cameras.
In an extraordinary scene clearly orchestrated by the White House for maximum effect — and reminiscent of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s visit in February — Trump confronted Ramaphosa with false claims of genocide against South African whites, including allegations of mass killings and land seizures.
It was another display of Trump’s apparent readiness to use the Oval Office, historically reserved as a place of honour for foreign dignitaries, to embarrass visitors from less-powerful nations or hold their feet to the fire on matters he is fixated upon.
Trump’s unprecedented use of the presidential setting for such displays could prompt foreign leaders to think twice about accepting his invitations and risk public humiliation — a reluctance that could make it harder to cement ties with friends and partners also being courted by arch-rival China.
Patrick Gaspard, a former US ambassador to South Africa under President Barack Obama, said Trump had turned the meeting with Ramaphosa into a “shameful spectacle” and “savaged him with some fake snuff film and violent rhetoric”.
“Engaging on Trump’s terms never goes well for anyone,” Gaspard, now a senior fellow at the Centre for American Progress think-tank in Washington, wrote in a post on X.
The Oval Office meeting had been billed as a chance to reset strained relations between the US and South Africa — especially after Trump’s imposition of tariffs — and to defuse escalating tensions over his unfounded accusations of “white genocide” and offer to resettle white minority Afrikaners.
After a cordial start to the meeting, Trump — a former reality TV star — ordered the lights dimmed and showed a video and printed articles purporting to be evidence that white South Africans are being persecuted.
Ramaphosa, clearly prepared to counter Trump’s accusations but unlikely to have expected the political theatre, was attentive and composed as he sought to refute what was presented by his host. But he stopped short of directly challenging or criticising a US president with a reputation for being thin-skinned.
“I’m sorry I don’t have a plane to give you,” Ramaphosa quipped with a smile, referring to the luxury jetliner Qatar has offered Trump as a replacement for Air Force One.
His spokesperson Vincent Magwenya told South African broadcaster Newzroom Afrika that “you could see President Ramaphosa was being provoked.”
“You could see he was having his eye pulled, and he did not fall for the trap,” Magwenya said.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request on whether the meeting was set up to put Ramaphosa in the hot seat and whether that might discourage other foreign leaders from such visits.
Cameron Hudson, a senior fellow at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies think-tank in Washington, said that while the televised portion of the meeting was a circus, “it never crossed the line into anger or vitriol, so it didn’t go off the cliff.”
Zelenskiy–Trump shouting match
That mood stood in sharp contrast to Trump’s meeting just months ago with Zelenskiy, which devolved into a shouting match involving both the president and Vice President JD Vance.
Zelenskiy, much like Ramaphosa, was there to try to heal a rift in relations — and in Ukraine’s case, maintain US military assistance to Kyiv in the war against Russia’s invading forces.
But the meeting quickly went off the rails, with Trump accusing Zelenskiy of being disrespectful and gambling with a potential World War Three, and Vance charging that the Ukrainian leader had not shown enough appreciation for US support.
The contentious nature of the meeting sent shockwaves through the NATO alliance backing Ukraine’s fight against Russia.
There may have been less at stake in Trump’s meeting on Wednesday with Ramaphosa, but South Africa is a major political and economic player in Africa that counts China as its biggest trading partner, with the US coming in second.
South Africa — which endured centuries of harsh discrimination against Black people during colonialism and apartheid before becoming a multi-party democracy in 1994 under Nelson Mandela — rejects Trump’s allegations.
Trump’s confrontation appeared tailored for parts of his political base, particularly the far-right and white nationalist segments that have long pushed the narrative of a “white genocide” in South Africa.
By showcasing unverified claims of violence against white farmers and framing land reform as racial persecution, Trump tapped talking points popular in US right-wing extremist circles.
Since returning to office in January, Trump has cancelled aid, expelled South Africa’s ambassador and resettled some white minority Afrikaners based on racial discrimination claims Pretoria says are baseless. The programme has been divisive, as Trump has largely blocked refugee admissions from the rest of the world.
A new South African land reform law — aimed at redressing the injustices of apartheid — allows for expropriations without compensation when in the public interest, for example if land is lying fallow. No such expropriation has taken place, and any order can be challenged in court.
“If anybody doubts that the Zelenskiy incident was not completely stage-managed by the White House, I think the scales should fall from their eyes,” British foreign affairs commentator Tim Marshall told Times Radio in London.