How false “white genocide” claims became central to Trump’s view of South Africa

By Avery Lotz

During a visit by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, President Trump had videos shown in the Oval Office purporting to show evidence of violence against white people in the country.

The big picture: The visit comes after Trump cut all foreign assistance to the country and parroted false allegations that white South Africans are being subjected to genocide, while granting them refugee status in the U.S.

Elon Musk, who was born in South Africa and has criticized its government, attended the talks.

Driving the news: Ramaphosa’s office said in a press release that the visit is “to discuss bilateral, regional and global issues of interest” and to provide a platform “to reset the strategic relationship” between the two countries.

The announcement comes the same week the Trump administration accepted white Afrikaner refugees, with the U.S. president claiming “they’re being killed” in “a genocide.”
The White House also reportedly ordered federal agencies to halt work on the G20 conference to be hosted by South Africa later this year.

State of play: Although Trump has closed the door to asylum seekers from elsewhere, he’s opened it up for white South Africans affected by the country’s controversial new land reform law to counter the lingering effects of apartheid.

South Africa’s Expropriation Act allows the government to take some land and redistribute as part of a long-running effort to lessen the racial and economic disparities created by apartheid.
Under apartheid, which ended in 1994, South Africa’s white minority government prevented Black citizens from owning land or enjoying basic rights for nearly a half-century.
Three decades later, South Africa’s president and many other leaders are Black. However, white people make up 7.3% of South Africa’s population and own 72% of the farmland, a disparity that continues to ripple through the economy.

Zoom in: Trump has falsely accused South Africa of unfairly seizing Afrikaners’ agricultural property and allowing attacks against white farmers.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has repeated Trump’s claims on social media. He refused to attend the G20 summit in Johannesburg, claiming: “South Africa is doing very bad things. Expropriating private property.”
South African-born Elon Musk, a top Trump adviser, has peddled conspiracy theories that his native country is “pushing for genocide of white people.”
Grok, the AI chatbot incorporated into Musk’s X, recently responded unprompted to users with misleading claims about the alleged “white genocide” in South Africa.

Context: The belief in a “white genocide”is closely linked to a once-fringe idea called “white replacement theory,” which imagines a plot to change nations’ racial composition by enacting policies that reduce whites’ political power.

Reality check: There’s no evidence that white farmers are experiencing a spike in violence, despite a few high-profile cases.

The Democratic Alliance, South Africa’s most popular white-led political party, is made up of multiethnic voters and is challenging the land law.
A South African court dismissed claims of a “white genocide” as “clearly imagined and not real.”

Between the lines: Paul S. Landau, a University of Maryland historian and South African expert, told Axios that allegations that whites in South Africa are under attack and of Trump’s offer to resettle white South Africans are based on racism and debunked conspiracy theories.