A stunning scene unfolded in the White House on Wednesday when President Donald Trump pulled a surprise on the president of South Africa, forcing him and the entire White House press pool to watch a panoply of clips depicting members of his political party advocating for the killing of white farmers.
The visit by Cyril Ramaphosa comes shortly after the Trump administration granted refugee status to white farmers fleeing violence in South Africa, but not without political repercussions. Democrats and other critics of the administration have accused Trump of giving quarter to white farmers while expelling black and brown refugees as part of his mass deportation agenda. Others have downplayed the lethal severity of threats against the white South Africans.
Trump appeared to put that liberal theory to rest shortly after sitting down with Ramaphosa.
“Turn the lights down. Turn the lights down and just put this on,” the president said before a TV in the Oval Office played a succession of clips.
“At some point there must be killing, because killing is part of the revolution!” screams one member of the African National Congress Party. Another can be seen shouting on the floor of South Africa’s Parliament that farmland will undoubtedly be confiscated.
Chants of “shoot! kill!” could be heard multiple times as footage from various political rallies was played. Helicopter footage above a deserted road peppered with white crosses on both sides was also shown.
“Each one of those white things you see is a cross, and there’s approximately a thousand of them. They’re all white farmers. The family of white farmers,” said Trump.
A caravan of paused cars came into view. “Those people aren’t driving. They’re stopped there to pay respects to a family member who was killed. It’s a terrible sight. I’ve never seen anything like it,” he added.
Before it aired, Ramaphosa opened the meeting with a diplomatic explanation of the hope that President Trump will “listen to the voices of South Africans” who are in agreement with him that “no white genocide is happening here.”
Trump, after listening patiently, was unmoved.
“We have thousands of stories talking about it, and we have documentaries, we have news stories,” he previewed as Elon Musk, a South African native who has raised alarms about the killing, looked on.
The debate around rescuing white South African farmers continued on Capitol Hill Tuesday as Secretary of State Marco Rubio appeared before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee to offer the administration’s defense of harboring new refugees. His testimony led to a heated exchange with a skeptical Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA), who accused Rubio and Trump of prioritizing farmers because of the “color of their skin.”
“I didn’t say that, you did,” Rubio shot back.
