Headline Roundup • May 21st, 2025
Are White South Afrikaners Being Persecuted? Trump, Ramaphosa Disagree
Summary from the AllSides News Team
US President Donald Trump met with President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa today, where Trump asked Ramaphosa to address a video of white South African farmers being mistreated.
The Details: The video showed white crosses and graves representing allegedly murdered white farmers, and Trump asked for an explanation for the white “genocide” going on in the country. Ramaphosa answered that black people were far more likely than white people to be victims of violence in South Africa. BBC (Center bias) reports that the crosses in the video were part of a protest rather than actual graves.
For Context: Trump recently suspended all aid to South Africa and accepted Afrikaners as refugees to the US, with State Secretary Marco Rubio saying there are “more to come.” The BBC notes that claims of a white genocide have circled “among right-wing groups,” though Ramaphosa and many other South Africans deny this.
How the Media Covered It: New York Times (Lean Left) called the meeting a “stark demonstration of Mr. Trump’s belief that the world has aligned against white people.” Fox News (Right) focused on Trump’s statements throughout the conversation, including only two of Ramaphosa’s responses to him. BBC highlighted that the original intent of the meeting was for the leaders to discuss trade and restoring relations between the US and South Africa, noting that Ramaphosa “hoped to charm Trump” by bringing two South African golfers and a book featuring South Africa’s golf courses.
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Featured Coverage of this Story
Eric Lee/The New York Times
In an astonishing confrontation in the Oval Office on Wednesday, President Trump lectured President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa with false claims about a genocide against white Afrikaner farmers, even dimming the lights to show what he said was video evidence of their persecution.
The meeting had been expected to be tense, given that Mr. Trump has suspended all aid to the country and created an exception to his refugee ban for Afrikaners, fast-tracking their path to citizenship even as he keeps thousands of other people out.
AP/Evan Vucci
President Donald Trump confronted South African President Cyril Ramaphosa at the White House on Wednesday with a video allegedly showing grave treatment of White farmers.
Trump has claimed that White Afrikaner South African farmers are being slaughtered and forced off their land. The Afrikaners are descendants of mostly Dutch settlers who first arrived in South Africa in 1652.
Getty Images
US President Donald Trump confronted his South African counterpart at the White House on Wednesday with a video Trump said supported his claim that white farmers were being "persecuted" in the country.
The footage, played during a news conference with Cyril Ramaphosa, showed thousands of crosses lining a road that Trump claimed marked burial spots for murdered white farmers.
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