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US President Donald Trump has announced that no US delegates would attend the G20 summit in South Africa, reigniting discredited claims about white Afrikaners being systematically exterminated in the country.
In September, Trump had said that Vice President JD Vance would represent the US at the summit later this month instead of him, but he has now declared that US officials would not attend at all.
“It is a total disgrace that the G20 will be held in South Africa,” Trump said on his Truth Social network.
“No U.S. Government Official will attend as long as these Human Rights abuses continue.”
Trump claimed that Afrikaners, descendants of the first European settlers of South Africa, are “being killed and slaughtered, and their land and farms are being illegally confiscated.”
He added that he looked forward to hosting the 2026 G20 summit in the US, which he plans to hold at his own golf resort in Miami, Florida.
Since his return to the presidency in January, Trump has criticised South Africa on several matters, particularly focusing on his incorrect assertions of “white genocide” happening in the nation.
Earlier this year, he confronted South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in the Oval Office, showing a video that accused the post-apartheid government of waging a campaign against white farmers. The South African government has rejected any such claims.
Last week, Trump’s administration announced plans to significantly reduce the annual cap on refugee admissions to a historic low of 7,500, prioritising white South Africans.
Relations between the two countries have also soured over South Africa’s accusation against Israel of genocide in Gaza at the International Court of Justice, the highest court of the UN.
Additionally, Trump has imposed a 30 per cent tariff on South Africa, the highest rate among sub-Saharan African nations.
