By Ben Meiselas
I wish I were exaggerating when I say that Donald Trump just turned a presidential meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa into one of the most humiliating spectacles in modern diplomatic history—but no, this actually happened.
Let’s walk through this disaster together.
Trump sat down with President Ramaphosa in the Oval Office and immediately made it about himself, noting that unlike Qatar, South Africa didn’t offer him a gold-plated private jet. Ramaphosa responded with the kind of awkward silence reserved for watching someone faceplant in public. Trump followed that up with a straight-faced, “I would like another private jet.” I mean… seriously?
And then it just spiraled.
In front of Ramaphosa and the South African delegation, Trump went full scorched-earth on an NBC reporter. Not only did he scream and call him a “terrible reporter” and a “disgrace,” he dragged in Comcast CEO Brian Roberts, claimed the media should be investigated, and cut off all questions so he could start ranting about how someone gave the U.S. Air Force a jet. It was full-on MAGA performance art, orange-faced and raging, right in front of a foreign head of state.
But that wasn’t even the most deranged part.
Trump began holding up right-wing propaganda claiming there’s a “white genocide” in South Africa. He showed Ramaphosa a video of what he described as “burial sites” for murdered white farmers, using the footage to push a conspiracy that South Africa is engaged in racially targeted killings.
Trump Caught Lying About “Burial Site”
Here’s the truth: Trump lied. Again.
Thanks to our researcher J.D. Wolf over at MeidasNews.com, we now know exactly what Trump was showing. It’s not a burial site—it’s a controversial private monument called the Witkruis Monument, located in Limpopo province. And guess what? There are no graves. Just a field filled with white-painted metal crosses meant to represent victims of farm attacks.
As J.D. reports for MeidasNews.com, the monument has faced years of scrutiny for only honoring white victims and ignoring the fact that rural violence in South Africa affects people of all races. In fact, the South African government has confirmed that Black farmers are disproportionately affected by stock theft and other forms of agricultural crime.
Making matters worse, online images show individuals at the Witkruis Monument flying the apartheid-era South African flag—further evidence that the site, and Trump's use of it, plays into a white nationalist narrative divorced from the facts.
Back in the Oval Office, Ramaphosa—joined by both Black and white ministers, including an opposition figure from his own cabinet—repeatedly and calmly debunked Trump’s claims. But Trump wouldn’t stop. He just kept going, kept lying, kept embarrassing this country.
And then he brought up Elon Musk, because of course he did, saying Elon “doesn’t want to get involved” but is “from South Africa,” as though Musk’s nationality somehow validates Trump’s conspiracy theory.
Then, out of absolutely nowhere, Trump attacked New York Attorney General Letitia James. Yes, during a foreign policy meeting.
This was not a presidential meeting. It was an international humiliation. And let’s be clear: this isn’t just about optics. This kind of behavior weakens our alliances, strengthens our adversaries, and makes America look more like a rogue state than a global leader.
You can bet the BRICS bloc—Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa—was watching this closely. So was Xi Jinping. And you can be damn sure they liked what they saw: a chaotic, delusional America led by a wannabe dictator clutching racist tabloids and yelling at reporters.
We’ll continue exposing the truth at MeidasTouch—every lie, every meltdown, every moment that puts our democracy and global credibility at risk. If you’re as fed up with this madness as I am, help us grow. Subscribe to the Meidas+ Substack. Add the MeidasTouch Podcast now on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
Let’s do this together. Let’s fight back with the truth.
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