How Trump built on lies in confrontation with South Africa’s Ramaphosa over white persecution
In his White House meeting on Wednesday, President Trump showed President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa a social media video of a rural road lined with white crosses and hundreds of vehicles.
Mr Trump told Mr Ramaphosa that the footage showed “burial sites” of “over 1,000” white farmers in South Africa.
A New York Times analysis found that the footage instead showed a memorial procession on 5th September 2020, near Newcastle, South Africa. The event, according to a local news website, honoured a white farming couple in the area whom police said murderers had killed in late August of that year.
Organisers planted the crosses in the days ahead of the event and later removed them.
The misrepresentation of the footage took place during a stunning meeting in which Mr Trump made false claims about a genocide against white farmers. Mr Trump dimmed the lights to play the footage, presenting it as evidence of racial persecution against white South Africans. As the clip played, Mr Trump said: “These are burial sites right here. Burial sites. Over a thousand of white farmers.”
Contrary to Mr Trump’s statements, the crosses do not mark gravesites for farmers and organisers did not permanently place them along the road. Footage posted to social media before the remembrance event, in early September 2020, shows people setting up the white crosses, and Google Street View images from 2023 indicate that workers have since taken them down.
Several protests against the killing of white farmers have occurred in South Africa. White crosses commonly represent slain farmers at these events. Videos and photos at the 5th September event also showed tractors adorned with flags condemning farm murders and a large banner reading, “President Ramaphosa, how many more must die???” stretched between two vehicles above the roadway.
South Africa has an exceptionally high murder rate, but police statistics do not show that white South Africans or farmers face more vulnerability to violent crime than other people. A White House official told The Times each cross represented a white farmer whom killers had murdered, but did not comment on why Mr Trump had characterised the video as showing burial sites.
It remains unclear where Mr Trump obtained the video from, or who, if anyone, explained to him what the video showed. Elon Musk — who originally comes from South Africa and serves as one of Mr Trump’s advisers — had posted the video on the social media site X at least twice before today’s meeting.
In Wednesday’s meeting, when Mr Ramaphosa asked where the video came from, Mr Trump said, “I mean, it’s in South Africa.” (BusinessDay)
