South African President Calls Out Trump: ‘I'm Sorry I Don't Have a Plane to Give You'
When a reporter asked Trump what it would take for him to believe that there was no white genocide taking place in South Africa, Ramaphosa interjected to say that such a shift would require Trump actually 'listening to the voices of South Africans, some of whom he is good friends with, like those who are here.'
'It will take him, President Trump, listening to their stories, to their perspective,' Ramaphosa added.
Over the last week, attendees at the NAMPO agricultural exhibition in Bothaville, Free State — the largest agricultural expo in South Africa — categorically refuted claims that they were victims of a genocide. The allegations have also been rejected by South African courts who have blocked the transfer of funds to white supremacist groups who spread the conspiracy theory. Nevertheless, Trump has granted refugee status to over 50 white South Africans, and banned the government from participating in this year's G20 summit, which is set to be hosted by South Africa.
The claim that South African whites — particularly white farmers and Afrikaners — have been the targets of systematic, genocidal, anti-white violence in post-Apartheid South Africa has existed for decades, and is an extension of global white genocide conspiracy theories. The claims have been repeatedly disputed, with both international and South African investigations finding that rural crime against South African farmers victimizes both Black and white farmers and employees. According to a data review by The New York Times, between April 2020 and March 2024, South African police reported 225 farm murders. 'Many of the victims — 101 — were current or former workers living on farms, who are mostly Black,' the report read. 'Fifty-three of the victims were farmers, who are usually white.'
Trump seemed unmoved in Wednesday's meeting, at one point handing Ramaphosa — who repeatedly attempted to correct the president's narrative in as respectful manner as possible — a stack of printed articles he said were related to the murder of a white farmer. 'Death. Death. Death,' Trump repeated while flipping through the printouts.
After Ramaphosa suggested Trump actually listen to the perspective of South Africans, Trump had the lights of the Oval Office dimmed and played footage of members of South Africa's Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party singing the controversial anti-Apartheid song 'Kill the Boer.' The presentation also included social media footage of white crucifixes lining a highway in South Africa purporting to represent murdered white farmers.
'I would like to know where this is because this I've never seen,' Ramaphosa said.
'It's in South Africa,' Trump replied, without stating a specific location.
Ramaphosa also attempted to explain that while the EFF's songs were a point of controversy even within South Africa, and he personally disagreed with the content, the party had constitutional protections and free speech rights preventing the government from shutting them down.
Never one to ignore the Oval Office press gaggle, the president repeatedly complained that the 'fake news' media refused to report on the alleged race-based killings and instead was criticizing him for accepting a $400 million airplane from the government of Qatar. The Pentagon confirmed on Wednesday that it had accepted the plane.
'I wish I had a plane to give you,' a seemingly exasperated Ramaphosa said at one point.
'I wish you did. I would take it,' Trump responded. 'If your country offered the United States Air Force a plane, I would take it.'
Others in the room seemed baffled by the ambush and complaint session Trump had orchestrated at the meeting. At one point, South African businessman Johann Rupert attempted to gently explain to Trump that while South Africa does have 'too many deaths. It's across the board. It's not only white farmers. It's across the board.'
Rupert went on to implore Trump to help provide American technology like drones and Starlink — headed by South African billionaire and regular conspiracy monger Elon Musk — to law enforcement in South Africa, which would help curb crime rates in rural areas.
More from Rolling Stone
Dems Hemorrhaged Support from All Demographics in 2024 - Including New Voters
Trump Posts Video of Himself Hitting Bruce Springsteen With a Golf Ball
AOC to Reintroduce Bill Combating Deepfake AI Porn
Best of Rolling Stone
The Useful Idiots New Guide to the Most Stoned Moments of the 2020 Presidential Campaign
Anatomy of a Fake News Scandal
The Radical Crusade of Mike Pence
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
9 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Border agents directed to stop deportations under Trump's asylum ban after court order, CBS News reports
By Christian Martinez (Reuters) -U.S. border agents were directed to stop deportations under President Donald Trump's asylum ban, CBS News reported Monday citing two unnamed Department of Homeland Security officials. The direction comes after a three-judge panel at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia circuit on Friday partially granted an order that limited the asylum ban, saying it cannot be used to entirely suspend humanitarian protections for asylum seekers, according to CBS. Officials at Customs and Border Protection were instructed this weekend to stop deportations Trump's asylum ban and process migrants under U.S. immigration law, CBS said. Last month, a lower court judge blocked Trump's ban on asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border, saying that Trump had exceeded his authority when he issued a proclamation declaring illegal immigration an emergency and setting aside existing legal processes. The American Civil Liberties Union brought the challenge to Trump's asylum ban in February on behalf of three advocacy groups and migrants denied access to asylum, arguing the broad ban violated U.S. laws and international treaties. Trump has stepped up arrests of immigrants in the U.S. illegally, cracked down on unlawful border crossings and stripped legal status from hundreds of thousands of migrants since January 20. He has vowed to deport millions of people in the country illegally even as the administration has faced dozens of lawsuits across the country for its tactics.
New York Times
11 minutes ago
- New York Times
A Nuclear Reactor on the Moon? Come Again?
The acting administrator of NASA has issued a directive to fast-track efforts to put a nuclear reactor on the moon. 'To properly advance this critical technology to be able to support a future lunar economy, high power energy generation on Mars, and to strengthen our national security in space, it is imperative the agency move quickly,' Sean Duffy, the secretary of transportation whom President Trump appointed last month as temporary leader of the space agency, wrote in the directive, which was sent out on Thursday. Politico was first to report on the directive. In it, Mr. Duffy cites plans by China and Russia to put a reactor on the moon by the mid-2030s as part of a partnership to build a base there. If they were first, China and Russia 'could potentially declare a keep-out zone' that would inhibit what the United States could do there, Mr. Duffy said. The directive calls for the appointment of a NASA official to oversee the effort within 30 days and for a request seeking proposals from commercial companies to be issued within 60 days. The reactor will be required to generate at least 100 kilowatts of electrical power — enough for about 80 households in the United States — and to be ready to launch in late 2029. One lunar day lasts four weeks on Earth — two weeks of continual sunshine followed by two weeks of cold darkness. That harsh cycle makes it difficult for a spacecraft or a moon base to survive with just solar panels and batteries. Current exploration efforts, both by NASA and by the Chinese-Russian partnership, are focusing on the south polar region, where the sun is never high over the horizon and the bottoms of some craters lie in permanent shadows. Over the years, NASA has financed nuclear reactor research, including the awarding of three $5 million contracts in 2022 to companies developing initial designs. Those designs were smaller, producing 40 kilowatts and weighing under six metric tons. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
New York Times
11 minutes ago
- New York Times
Marjorie Taylor Greene Asks for George Santos's Sentence to Be Commuted
George Santos, the disgraced former congressman and notorious fabulist who pleaded guilty to wire fraud and aggravated identity theft after being expelled from the House, has been in federal prison for 11 days on a sentence of more than seven years. On Monday, one of his former colleagues began a formal effort to get him out. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, the brash Georgia Republican and MAGA adherent, sent a letter to the Justice Department's pardon attorney asking that Mr. Santos's 87-month prison term be commuted, calling it 'excessive' and a 'grave injustice.' Ms. Greene's letter came just days after President Trump, who has doled out pardons or clemency to staunch supporters and others favored by his right-wing base, did not rule out offering a pardon to Mr. Santos, saying only that he had not been asked. 'Nobody's talked to me about it,' Mr. Trump said on Friday in an interview on the right-wing channel Newsmax. Still, the president, who is known for his own exaggerations and outright falsehoods, acknowledged Mr. Santos's reputation. 'He lied like hell,' Mr. Trump said. 'And I didn't know him, but he was 100 percent for Trump.' It was an accurate assessment. Mr. Santos, 37, rode into Congress in January 2023 as the object of national scorn after The New York Times and other outlets uncovered that he had fabricated much of his résumé, including a booming Wall Street career and ties to Sept. 11 and the Holocaust. He was ejected that December, after three-quarters of the House voted to expel him. But during his 11-month stint in Congress, Mr. Santos, a Republican from New York, frequently aligned with hard-right lawmakers like Ms. Greene. And even before he took office, Mr. Santos was a reliable Trump loyalist. After both men lost their elections in 2020, Mr. Santos repeated the president's debunked claims of election fraud and falsely insisted that he, too, had an election stolen from him. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
