Trump says US will boycott G20 summit in South Africa, citing treatment of white farmers | Donald Trump
Donald Trump said Friday that no U.S. government officials will attend this year’s Group of 20 summit in South Africa, citing the country’s treatment of white farmers.
The US president has already announced that he will not attend the annual summit attended by heads of state of the world’s leading and developing economies. J.D. Vance was scheduled to attend in Trump’s place, but a person familiar with Vance’s plans who was given anonymity to speak about his schedule said Vance would no longer travel there for the summit.
“Holding the G20 in South Africa is a complete disgrace,” Trump said on his social media site. In his post, Trump referred to “abuses” against Afrikaners, which included violence and death, as well as the seizure of their lands and farms.
The Trump administration has long accused the South African government of allowing minority white Afrikaner farmers to be persecuted and attacked. Limiting the number of refugees accepted to the United States each year to 7,500, the administration stated that most of them would be white South Africans, who it claimed were subjected to discrimination and violence in their own country.
But South Africa’s government said it was surprised by accusations of discrimination because the country’s white people generally enjoy a much higher standard of living than its Black residents, more than three decades after the end of apartheid, a system of white minority rule.
The country’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, said he told Trump that information about alleged discrimination and persecution of Afrikaners was “completely false”.
Despite this, the administration continued its criticism of the South African government. In his economic speech in Miami earlier this week, Trump said South Africa should be kicked out of the group of 20.
Earlier this year, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio boycotted a G20 meeting of foreign ministers because his agenda was focused on diversity, inclusion and climate change efforts.
