A meeting between President Donald Trump and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa which the South African leader said was intended to “reset” the relationship between both governments after months of tensions appeared to go off the rails when Trump confronted Ramaphosa with inflammatory videos and news articles which he alleged to be evidence of “genocide” against white South Africans. The Oval Office session had been largely calm and filled with complements delivered from both Trump and Ramaphosa when the American leader was asked what it would take for Ramaphosa to convince him that no such “genocide” was taking place. Trump directed staff to play a video, which included footage of Julian Malema, the leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters party, in which Malema repeatedly exhorts followers at a rally.to “kill the farmer” and “kill the Boer.” After the video was finished, Ramaphosa told Trump that Malema, while a member of his country’s parliament, doesn’t wield any authority and isn’t part of the government. “We have a multi party democracy in South Africa that allows people to express themselves, political parties to adhere to various policies. And in many cases, or in some cases, those policies do not go along with government policy. Our government policy is completely, completely against what he was saying, even in the Parliament, and they're a small minority party which is allowed to exist in terms of our Constitution,” he said. Continuing, the South African leader admitted that there is “criminality” in his country that has seen many people, both Black and white, killed as a result. When Trump pressed Ramaphosa about the controversial land expropriation law, he replied that South Africa’s constitution “guarantees and protects the sanctity of tenure of land ownership” for “all South Africans,” while comparing the authority Trump cited to the American government’s power of eminent domain, which allows the confiscation of land for public use. Trump did not appear convinced. He asked: “How do you explain that they're taking people's land away, and in many cases, those people are being executed?” “We have thousands of people that want to come into our country, and they're white farmers, and they feel that they're going to die in South Africa, and it's a bad thing,” he said. At that point, Ramaphosa turned to his Agriculture Minister, John Steenhuisen, who said he would not “sugar coat” the problem of farm murders and conceded that dealing with the problem would require “a lot of effort to get on top of” and “more policing resources” as well as “a different strategy to be able to deal with it.” “But certainly, the majority of South Africa's commercial and smallholder farmers really do want to stay in South Africa and make it work.,” he said. Steenhuisen also denounced Malena and explained to Trump that his party, the Democratic Alliance, had joined with Ramaphosa’s African National Congress party to “keep those people out of power.” “We cannot have those people sitting in the Union Buildings making decisions. That is why, after 30 years of us exchanging barbs across the floor in Parliament and trying to get one over on each other, we've decided to join hands precisely to keep that lot out of government, because the day they get in to the doors of the Union Buildings in South Africa or control about parliament, that's what you're going to see, and that is why this government, working together, needs the support of our allies around the world so that we can strengthen our hand, grow our economy, and shut the door forever on that rabble,” he said. The meeting between Trump and Ramaphosa, which was arranged at the request of the South African government, comes after months of tensions between Washington and Pretoria over the controversial land expropriation law and Trump’s frequent claims that white South Africans are victims of “genocide,” which echo a white supremacist conspiracy theory alleging immigration and forced assimilation threaten the existence of white people — a claim that has fueled racist hate and violence against minority groups as well as parallel conspiracy theories like the so-called “great replacement” theory. Trump has repeatedly cited the land expropriation law as he has compared efforts by the South African government to combat racial inequalities from apartheid to anti-white discrimination, and South African officials have accused the administration of using claims from white Afrikaners to undermine the country’s genocide case against Israel now before the International Court of Justice. White Afrikaners, descendants of Europeans who arrived in the country centuries ago, claim to have been denied jobs and become targets of violence for their race — claims that exploded with new legislation regulating property expropriation. Viral misinformation claimed dozens of daily murders of white farmers. But it’s been estimated that roughly 50 farmers total, from all racial groups, were killed annually in a country that recorded more than 19,000 murders between January and September 2024. Citing that misinformation, Trump announced in February he was cutting off funding to South Africa — most of which goes to efforts to combat HIV/AIDS — because the government was “confiscating land” and “treating certain classes of people very badly.” He has also threatened to boycott the Group of 20 leader’s summit, which South Africa is set to host in Johannesburg this November. His administration also made an exception to its’ policy freezing the admission of refugees to the United States for a group of Afrikaner farmers, who arrived in Washington earlier this month. The group of 59 were granted asylum on Trump’s orders. Ramaphosa’s government had asked for the visit in hopes of diffusing the tensions, and as he arrived in Washington he prepared a charm offensive meant to disarm Trump and put him at ease. Joining him in the Oval Office for the bilateral sit-down with the American president were two prominent South African golfers, Ernie Els and Retief Goosen, both of whom are friends with Trump. Ramaphosa also brought Johann Rupert, a South African billionaire and luxury goods magnate as part of his official delegation and at the top of the meeting presented Trump with a book of South African golf courses. Asked by Trump to weigh in, Els said he and Goosen were both there as “proud South Africans” who “want to see things get better in our home country.” He told the president that they had both come to meet with members of the Trump administration to help “see a way forward” so the country can “flourish.” “You know, we got some great things going on. Businesses getting involved with government, farming. Farmers are getting involved in local municipalities, trying to rebuild some of the infrastructure that's been decaying for a long time.,” he said. B“ut we need, I feel we need the U.S. to push this thing through.,” he said.