Donald Trump put his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa on the spot with an inventory of claims and video clips when the pair met within the Oval Workplace on Wednesday.
However a number of items of proof that President Trump used to help his claims are inaccurate.
One video the White Home performed confirmed strains of white crosses alongside a street.
Mr Trump instructed President Ramaphosa that the footage confirmed burial websites of greater than 1,000 white farmers in South Africa.
Picture:
The video proven by President Trump originated from a YouTube video from 2020. Credit score: The Bulletin
Picture:
Google maps satellite tv for pc imagery from 2023 exhibits the crosses pictured in 2020 have been eliminated. Credit score: Google maps
The clip seems to originate from a YouTube video from 2020 displaying crosses lining the P39-1 street close to Newcastle within the east of South Africa.
The caption of the video, which was filmed in KwaZulu-Natal province, explains that the crosses are a memorial for murdered farm staff after two farmers Glen and Vida Rafferty had been killed.
There isn’t a indication that the crosses mark the place the deceased have been buried or that every cross represents a white farmer.
Satellite tv for pc map imagery from 2023 exhibits the crosses are not there.
Native reporting on the time quotes attendants of the memorial as saying the crosses are a present of help not particularly for white farmers however for folks from all walks of life who had been involved about farm murders.
White crosses have been used as an emblem of commemoration for the homicide of farmers in South Africa for years. The Witkruis Monument within the north of the nation shows dozens of white crosses as a tribute to farmer staff who’ve been killed.
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The Witkruis monument – additionally known as the Plaasmoorde monument on account of its location – makes use of white crosses to commemorate killed farmers. Credit score: AP
Different elements of the proof offered by Mr Trump had been additionally incorrect.
At one level, whereas speaking concerning the deaths of white farmers in South Africa, Mr Trump held up a printed-out picture of a weblog known as ‘American Thinker’.
The weblog image is taken from a February 2025 YouTube video of Pink Cross staff within the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Picture:
President Trump holds up a printed-out copy of a weblog. The picture within the weblog exhibits assist staff within the DRC. Credit score: Reuters
Mr Trump additionally performed movies of individuals he stated had been officers selling the killing of white farmers.
The movies had been of rallies or speeches from opponents of Mr Ramaphosa’s ANC social gathering, which is at present in energy.
Many of those movies present Julius Malema, the chief of the black nationalist and communist Financial Freedom Fighters (EFF) social gathering.
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The EFF are usually not a mainstream social gathering and are usually not officers as Mr Trump claimed.
Mr Ramaphosa responded to Mr Trump, saying: “Our government policy is completely against what he [Malema] was saying.”
He continued that “they [the EFF] are a small minority party, which is allowed to exist according to our constitution”.
These claims had been made as a part of President Trump’s allegation that white folks in South Africa are dealing with a excessive stage of race-based violence.
“We have many people that feel they’re being persecuted, and they’re coming to the United States. So we take from many… locations, if we feel there’s persecution or genocide going on,” the US president stated, referring particularly to white farmers.
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South Africa has rejected the allegation that white individuals are disproportionately focused by crime.
The nation’s police information doesn’t give race-based crime statistics. Police information from April 2020 to March 2024 confirmed 225 folks had been killed on farms in South Africa.
Crime information suggests 98,115 murders between 2020 and 2024, of which killings on farms are a really small proportion, round 0.2%.
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The accuracy of crime information in South Africa has been questioned by educational specialists, as farm murders are usually not constantly recorded in official information.
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Earlier this month, President Trump provided refuge to a small variety of white South Africans.
In March, the South African ambassador to the US Ebrahim Rasool was expelled after American secretary of state Marco Rubio accused him of being a “race-baiting politician” who hates President Trump.
