JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — US President Donald Trump has announced that the United States will not attend the upcoming G20 summit in South Africa, citing widely discredited claims that white people are being persecuted in the country.
The summit, which gathers leaders from the world’s largest economies, is scheduled to take place in Johannesburg later this month.
President Trump stated on his social media platform, Truth Social, that hosting the meeting was a “total disgrace.”
“It is a total disgrace that the G20 will be held in South Africa,” Trump posted on his social media platform Truth Social.
“Afrikaners (people who are descended from Dutch settlers, and also French and German immigrants) are being killed and slaughtered, and their land and farms are being illegally confiscated,” he wrote.
“No US government official will attend as long as these human rights abuses continue.”
South Africa rejects claims as ‘imagined crisis’
South Africa’s government strongly refuted the President’s allegations, describing the decision by the White House as “regrettable.”
Chrispin Phiri, a spokesman for the South African Foreign Ministry, told Vivid Voice News that the success of the summit would not “rest on one member state.” He accused Trump of attempting to manufacture a crisis.
“Orchestrating an imagined crisis… using the painful history of South Africa’s colonial past,” Mr Phiri said.
He further stressed that the claims of a white genocide are unsubstantiated by evidence:
“Absolutely no evidence of white persecution in South Africa,” adding: “South Africa does have its problems and we are dealing with those. I think crime affects everyone, regardless of their race.”
The South African foreign ministry released a statement highlighting the historical inaccuracy of the claim: “The South African government wishes to state, for the record, that the characterisation of Afrikaners as an exclusively white group is ahistorical. Furthermore, the claim that this community faces persecution, is not substantiated by fact.”
The government affirmed that the claims of a white genocide are “widely discredited and unsupported by reliable evidence,” noting that a South African court had already dismissed the claims as “clearly imagined” in February.
Phiri concluded by confirming the summit would proceed as planned:
“We will move on without the United States,” he said.
Escalating diplomatic friction
The US withdrawal marks a further escalation in diplomatic friction between the two nations since President Trump returned to office in January.
He has repeatedly accused South Africa of discriminating against its white minority, including a public confrontation with his South African counterpart, President Cyril Ramaphosa, in the Oval Office in May.
Initially, Trump had indicated he would send Vice President JD Vance instead of attending himself, but the White House has now stated that no US official will participate.
The Trump administration has previously taken the unprecedented step of granting Afrikaners refugee status based on the discredited “genocide” claims.
Last week, the White House announced plans to prioritize white South Africans in refugee admissions, despite the South African government pointing to the “limited uptake” of the offer by South Africans.
The G20, which includes nations representing more than 85% of the world’s wealth, was founded in 1999 to restore global economic stability. It gathers leaders each year to discuss global economies and international issues.
