Trump Says US Plans to Skip G-20 Summit in South Africa

(Bloomberg) — President Donald Trump said that no US officials would attend the Group of 20 conference later this month in South Africa, the latest escalation in the rift that has erupted over his claims that the country is mistreating White Afrikaners.

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“It is a total disgrace that the G20 will be held in South Africa,” Trump wrote on social media, claiming that Afrikaners “are being killed and slaughtered, and their land and farms are being illegally confiscated.”

“No U.S. Government Official will attend as long as these Human Rights abuses continue,” he continued.

Trump in September announced he personally would not be attending the conference of world leaders, but that Vice President JD Vance would be going in his stead. Following the president’s social media post, a person familiar with the vice president’s plans confirmed he did not plan to attend.

The president’s fight with South Africa reached a boiling point in May when he ambushed President Cyril Ramaphosa in the White House with a video purporting to back up his claims White farmers are being targeted.

The incident derailed Ramaphosa’s visit to Washington, which was intended to mend ties with the US and persuade Trump to stop floating the conspiracy theory about a campaign against White South Africans.

Trump’s attacks on South Africa date back to shortly after his second inauguration. In February, Trump signed an executive order halting assistance over what he falsely claimed were rights violations stemming from a new land-expropriation law. Trump has also previously made the false claim that there’s a genocide against White Afrikaner farmers in South Africa.

Trump’s administration has offered refugee status to White Afrikaners, a group that it claims is persecuted under Black ownership and employment-equity laws intended to address racial inequities stemming from decades of apartheid rule.

Earlier this week, Trump said during a speech in Miami — where the US will host the G-20 in 2026 — that he believed South Africa shouldn’t be part of the group of advanced economies at all.

“South Africa shouldn’t even be in the Gs anymore, because what’s happened there is bad,” Trump said.

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