Decisions, decisions: Can Trump resist the allure of our golf courses and snub our G20?

What does a host do when an important but discourteous guest won’t properly RSVP? Should the host continually follow up with polite reminders? Or just proceed with the assumption that the VVIP is not attending, while leaving the door open for a last-minute change of heart?

President Cyril Ramaphosa, the host of the Group of 20 leaders meeting in November, has this predicament with US President Donald Trump. Instead of accepting or turning down the invitation, Trump has continued to torment and confuse. This week he said he’d "probably send someone else", repeating the lies he’s come to be known for about our country.

While Trump simply wants to “make America wealthy again”, Ramaphosa has an even more urgent job of first rescuing our beleaguered economy. Ramaphosa, therefore, needs to leave the door slightly open in case Trump decides on the eleventh hour to pick up his golf bag and come over.

South Africa shouldn’t be surprised if Trump snubbed our G20, as disappointing as it would be as we would miss an opportunity to bask in the global limelight. But we shouldn't close the door to the chance that the leader of the world's biggest economy might come and even make a real contribution. 

Being a wanna-be-golfer myself, I would bet that Trump won’t be able to resist the allure of Sun City's golf courses and suchlike. So, if we can’t get any cooperation or sympathy from global trade’s disruptor-in-chief, then let’s hope the golf seduction works. But it would be a real pity if he snubbed us.

The G20 as it exists now came about as a result of the 2008 global financial crisis that started in the US and spread around the world. The original, informal G20 had been around since 1999 as a forum for finance ministers and central bank governors from major industrialised and developing economies to discuss and coordinate policies. It only became the fully fledged G20 attended by heads of state after America’s massive economic sneezing in 2008 gave the whole globe a bout of flu. In other words, the US gave us all the G20. Therefore, it would be a shame if Trump didn’t pitch.

He must come, even though we all know he’ll try and throw a spanner – or a golf club – in the works.