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.
A portion of the footage aired at the White House showed white crosses lined up alongside both sides of a road.
“Now this is very bad. These are burial sites right here. Burial sites — over a thousand — of White farmers. And those cars are lined up to pay love on a Sunday morning. Each one of those white things you see is a cross. And there is approximately a thousand of them,” Trump said. “They’re all White farmers. The family of White farmers. And those cars aren’t, driving, they are stopped there to pay respects to their family member who was killed. And it’s a terrible sight. I’ve never seen anything like it. On both sides of the road, you have crosses. Those people are all killed.”
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President Donald Trump meets South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. (AP/Evan Vucci)
“Have they told you where that is, Mr. President? I’d like to know where that is. Because this I’ve never seen,” Ramaphosa then asked Trump.
“I mean, it’s in South Africa, that’s where,” Trump responded.
“We need to find out,” Ramaphosa said.
Earlier, Trump said that “we had a lot of people, I must tell you, Mr. President, we have had a tremendous number of people, especially since they’ve seen this, generally they’re White farmers and they’re fleeing South Africa. And it’s, you know, it’s a very sad thing to see, but, I hope we can have an explanation of that, because I know you don’t want that.”
Some 50 Afrikaners were flown to the U.S. as refugees last week. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said there’s “more to come”.
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President Donald Trump shows documents as he meets South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa at the White House in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday. (AP/Evan Vucci)
South Africa, and its president, denies claims of genocide and harassment.
“I’m not going to be repeating what I’ve been saying. I would say if there was Afrikaner farmer genocide, I can bet you these three gentlemen would not be here, including my Minister of Agriculture. He would not be with me. So it will take him, President Trump listening to their stories, to their perspectives, that is the answer to your question,” Ramaphosa said.
At one point in the meeting, Trump was asked by a reporter, “What would you like President Ramaphosa to do about the situation that we just seen on the screen?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know,” Trump said.
Elon Musk looks on as President Donald Trump meets South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. (AP/Evan Vucci)
“Look, these are articles over the last few days,” Trump continued, holding up a stack of paper.
“Death of people. Death. Death. Horrible death,” Trump said as he started flipping through the sheets.
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“White South Africans are fleeing because of the violence and racist laws… So when you say, ‘What would I like to do?’ I don’t know what to do,” Trump said.