Trump's narrative on Afrikaner genocide faces backlash from US media

United States President Donald Trump did his best to control the narrative about a genocide against white Afrikaner farmers in South Africa during a recent Oval Office visit with President Cyril Ramaphosa, but media outlets in his country have largely dismissed his claims.

During a meeting between President Cyril Ramaphosa and Trump in the Oval Office last week, the US president pushed the narrative that there is a genocide of Afrikaner farmers in South Africa and that the government’s laws allow for their land to be taken away without compensation.

Trump confronted Ramaphosa with a video of EFF leader Julius Malema chanting the “Kill the boer” liberation song to a mass crowd. He also showed footage of crosses on either side of a road that were erected in protest to the murder of a couple on a farm, which he claimed were grave sites.

Included in a stack of printed articles that Trump handed to Ramaphosa as examples of farm murders was a screenshot taken from a Reuters story about a mass grave in the Congo.

In an analysis of how the US media reported on these claims, Moegsien Williams, a veteran in the South African media landscape, said even the right-leaning newspapers have questioned the veracity of Trump’s claims.

“The stories being published by several news organisations in the US are indicative of the scepticism in American media, generally talking about print and broadcast, in the claims that President Trump makes from time to time,” he said.

Williams highlighted that the Washington Post had tracked the number of lies, false claims and misinformation that Trump spewed in his first term in office, from 2016 to 2020, to more than 30,000.

“I just looked this morning before you called, and one of the publications calculated that he told about 100 lies in his first 100 days in office [in his second term],” he said.

According to Williams, the US media has grown accustomed to a president who is “the most powerful man in the most powerful office” employing false narratives on both domestic and foreign matters.

He said this also extends to leaders of other countries, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy stating earlier this year prior to his Oval Office visit that Trump was trapped in a "disinformation bubble".

“Even a person from another country accused the White House of not having their facts straight. It's not surprising that the American media reacted the way they did when President Ramaphosa went to the White House last week and was ‘ambushed’ based on lies and a false narrative that there's a genocide of white farmers in South Africa,” he said.

Williams further explained that what has emerged is that people read what they want to read that fits into their preferred opinion of the world. “Trump is a typical example of what is happening in the United States where a certain section of the population are really not interested in the opinion, views, and facts that contrast with their own news and views.”

He said even former South African Ambassador to the US, Ebrahim Rasool, was declared persona non grata and expelled after making comments about Trump and US foreign policy.

“Ibrahim said in his famous interview that got him declared a persona non grata, that Trump is pushing a narrative of a white supremacist,” he said, adding that this appeals to the US President's base of supporters who are tired of diversity, equity, and policies on inclusion.

“All the things that he is doing and busy with appeal directly to that white supremacist base. The claim about genocide in South Africa and white Afrikaners fits directly into that kind of agenda of his, and hence he will tell deliberate, brazen lies,” he said.

Williams believes that Trump had been briefed by some of the best-resourced intelligence organisations about South Africa prior to the meeting with Ramaphosa and that he was very conscious about what he was doing.

“It's extraordinary that you have this very powerful office occupied by a person who thrives on lies, and I just saw the New York Times the other day saying that the way he treated Zelenskiy and Ramaphosa indicates that there may come a time when foreign leaders will be reluctant to visit Washington,” he said.

Williams noted that when the media questions Trump about topics that do not support his agenda, he pushes back and treats them with disdain.

During the Trump/Ramaphosa meeting, an NBC reporter questioned why it was appropriate to welcome more than 50 Afrikaner refugees when refugees from other countries have had their refugee protected status revoked.

“This is a group, NBC, that is truly fake news. They ask a lot of questions in a very pointed way. They're not questions, they’re statements,” Trump explained to Ramaphosa.

The same NBC reporter later questioned Trump about a jet that was gifted to the US government by Qatar after the videos were played, supposedly as proof of the alleged genocide. This triggered the US president, who lambasted the journalist for posing a question off topic.

“They’re giving the United States Air Force a jet. Okay and it’s a great thing. We’re talking about a lot of other things. It's NBC trying to get off the subject of what you just saw. You are a terrible reporter. Number one, you don't have what it takes to be a reporter. You're not smart enough.

“But for you to go into a subject about a jet that was given to the United States Air Force, which is a very nice thing, they also gave £5.1 trillion worth of investment in addition to the jet. Go back. You ought to go back to your studio at NBC, because Brian Roberts and the people that run that place, they ought to be investigated. They are so terrible the way you run that work and you're a disgrace. No more questions from you,” said Trump.

Following the meeting, during a briefing, US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce was asked by an American journalist whether there had been an investigation to support the allegation of genocide and what information was given to the White House by State Department experts to support what was described as an “ambush” around the world of Ramaphosa.

In response, Bruce said Ramaphosa was aware of Trump’s position about the violence in South Africa prior to the meeting and argued against the notion that there was an ambush.

“South Africa also has been facing a dynamic where there's been regular criticism, ranging from not just the collapse in some ways when it comes to the violence in civil society, but then the referral of Israel with the ICJ for the issues of genocide, while ignoring Hamas, cosying up to Iran, the general choices that they've made. In the meantime, also passing a law that has allowed them to take the property, to possess property of white Afrikaner farmers with no reason,” said Bruce.

Bruce said this, together with EFF mass rallies where “violence is encouraged,” and land expropriation laws creates a picture that is worth having a conversation about in the Oval Office.

South African journalist Redi Tlhabi, who is based in Washington DC and hosts the Readiness Report online, commented on how the US media were reporting on the white genocide claims.

“South Africans need to understand that right here, that white genocide thing is being reflected and reported on in the way that subverts that story...US media, international media is not fixated on this; I was on Deutsche Welle, France 24, the BBC, and the framing is exactly that of a false claim of a genocide,” said Tlhabi.

CNN described the Oval Office press conferences as “WWE cage matches” and said that world leaders now enter “at their peril.”

“Trump’s dressings-down are a metaphor for a US foreign policy that is erratic, politicised and awash in conspiracy theories. As Ukraine and Jordan also found out, the more vulnerable a country, the more hostile a reception they tend to get.”

karen.singh@inl.co.za