Trump's week in review: Showdown with South Africa, Big Beautiful Bill, Make America Healthy Again
Confrontation with South African president
During a tense meeting in the Oval Office on Wednesday, Trump confronted South African President Cyril Ramaphosa with allegations of genocide and violence in his country against white farmers who descended mostly from Dutch settlers who arrived there in the 1600s.
After a reporter in the press pool asked Trump what it would take for him to be convinced there is no genocide in South Africa, the president asked an aide to bring him printed-out articles documenting what the president called “thousands of stories” about Afrikaners being killed.
Trump then asked aides to dim the lights in the room as a video began to play showing footage of South Africa’s Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) Party singing the apartheid-era “Shoot the Boer” song — with lyrics that include “kill the Boer, kill the white farmer” — in front of a massive crowd.
The exchange took place a week after Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau welcomed the first group of Afrikaner refugees to the U.S.
Trump, who expressed concern about the situation even during his first term, labeled Afrikaners as refugees by executive order in February, and his administration has accused the South African government of passing a law allowing for the seizure of their agricultural properties without proper compensation.
The resettling of Afrikaners has drawn criticism from some Christian refugee resettlement organizations, which have objected to the Trump administration effectively shutting down the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program after taking office. The move has left thousands of refugees in limbo who had already been approved to enter the U.S.
