Donald Trump confronted South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Wednesday with debunked claims about white farmers being targeted and killed in the country, using evidence from Congo.
For months, Trump and his allies have spread baseless claims of a “genocide” targeting white farmers in South Africa, claims that the country’s government has denied.
During a bilateral meeting at the White House with Ramaphosa, Trump brandished a stack of articles he claimed documented the genocide taking place against white people in South Africa.
“Death of people, death, death, death, horrible death, death,” Trump said as he flipped through the headlines, adding, “these are all people that recently got killed.”
Among the papers was an enlarged image showing Red Cross workers in protective gear handling body bags. Trump claimed the photo shows “burial sites” of white farmers killed in South Africa.
According to Agence France-Presse, the photo was actually a screengrab from a video taken in the Democratic Republic of Congo in February showing Red Cross workers responding after women were raped and burned alive during a mass jailbreak in the Congolese city of Goma.
Trump also played a video that ended with an aerial shot of a line of white crosses along a road that Trump claimed showed burial sites for white farmers killed in South Africa.
However, the crosses were part of a demonstration in 2020 after a white couple was killed on their farm, ABC News reported citing local news outlets in South Africa.
Ramaphosa also seemed caught off guard by the video, turning to Trump saying, “I’d like to know where that is, because this I’ve never seen.”
Ramaphosa acknowledged there is crime in South Africa but noted that the majority of victims were Black.
The conspiracy theory of a white genocide in South Africa has been promoted for years by racists in the country. Recently, the once fringe theory has been amplified by prominent right wing figures in the US including Tucker Carlson and South African born billionaire Elon Musk who was present at Tuesday’s White House meeting.
