Trump presented fake photo to Ramaphosa in bid to support controversial white genocide theory in South Africa

During a meeting at the White House, US President Donald Trump showed South African President Cyril Ramaphosa a screenshot to support his claim of “White genocide” in South Africa, as per reports.

Reuters reported earlier that one of the pictures shown in the clip by Trump was not even from South Africa. It was from Congo. Trump said, “These are all white farmers that are being buried,” while showing the image.

But the real video was from Goma, DRC, showing humanitarian workers lifting body bags after an attack by M23 rebels. The footage Trump used was published on February 3 by Reuters, and their fact-check team confirmed the real location, according to the report by Reuters.


The article Trump held was from “American Thinker”, a conservative blog that discussed racial tension in both South Africa and Congo, according to the FRANCE 24 and Reuters report.

The blog never said the image was from South Africa, it called it a “YouTube screengrab” from a Congo video. Andrea Widburg, the editor who wrote the post, said Trump got the image wrong, according to a Reuters report.

Widburg also said the post was about “increasing pressure on white South Africans”, and criticized Ramaphosa’s government. Djaffar Al Katanty, the journalist who filmed the Congo video, said he was shocked Trump used his video wrongly. Al Katanty said, “Trump used what I filmed in DRC to say white people are being killed in South Africa”, reports.

Ramaphosa went to Washington to fix US-South Africa relations after Trump had complained about South Africa’s land rules, foreign policy, and how it treats White people, which South Africa says is not true. During the meeting, Trump played a video to support the false idea of a "White genocide" in South Africa, a theory shared by far-right groups online. Trump told aides, “Turn the lights down and just put this on,” before showing a video, as per the report by FRANCE 24.

The video showed South African politicians chanting “kill the farmer”, which shocked Ramaphosa. He said the video clips were from a small minority party, and that his government is totally against that kind of speech. Trump then showed printed articles and kept repeating words like “death, death, death, horrible death.”

But Trump’s team did not fact-check the visuals properly. One photo he showed had white crosses, which he claimed were graves of White farmers. In reality, those white crosses were part of a memorial for a couple killed in 2020, they are not graves, according to the BBC report

Even though South Africa has a high murder rate, most victims are Black, not White. Out of over 26,000 murders in 2024, only eight were of farmers, and the police do not list victims by race. Also, not all South African farmers are White, there are Black farmers too, according to the report by FRANCE 24.

FAQs

Q1. Did Trump show fake evidence to Ramaphosa?
Yes, the photo he showed was from Congo, not South Africa.

Q2. Is there proof of White genocide in South Africa?
No, it's a false story as there is no official evidence.