The US will not attend the G20 meeting in South Africa, President Donald Trump has said, because of “land confiscation and genocide” of white farmers.
In a post on his social-media site Truth Social, the President blasted South Africa for its anti-white racism.
“How could we be expected to go to South Africa for the very important G20 Meeting when Land Confiscation and Genocide is the primary topic of conversation?” President Trump posted.
“They are taking the land of white Farmers, and then killing them and their families. The Media refuses to report on this. The United States has held back all contributions to South Africa. Is this where we want to be for the G20? I don’t think so!”
The G20 consists of 19 countries, as well as the African Union and European Union, together making up 80% of the global economy and two-thirds of the population.
South Africa will hold the presidency of the G20 until November 2025, when it will be handed over to the US, at the next summit, in Johannesburg.
The decision to boycott the G20 in South Africa was first announced in February, when Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced he would not be attending any meetings and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he had commitments in Washington that would prevent him from attending a meeting of finance ministers.
Secretary Rubio said he would not “coddle anti-Americanism.”
In a stunning reversal of official policy and in the face of widespread media denials, the Trump administration has drawn attention to the plight of white South Africans under the post-Apartheid regime and even set up a refugee program for them to settle in the US.
At the beginning of February, President Trump signed an Executive Order creating a new pathway to settlement in the US for white South Africans.
The Order stated that the South African government has seized “ethnic minority Afrikaners’ agricultural property without compensation” and issued “countless government policies designed to dismantle equal opportunity” in public life.
It also claims the country has “taken aggressive positions towards the United States and its allies,” including accusing Israel of genocide at the International Court of Justice and strengthening its ties with Iran.
“The United States cannot support the government of South Africa’s commission of rights violations in its country or its undermining United States foreign policy, which poses national security threats to our Nation, our allies, our African partners, and our interests,” the order says.
A new Land Expropriation Act has elicited a fierce backlash from white farmers in South Africa, who believe their land will be taken from them and redistributed, as happened in Zimbabwe, with disastrous effects for the country.