Trump freezes aid to South Africa over refusal to acknowledge genocide against white minority

President Donald Trump rebuked South African government in a post to X on Wednesday, calling out Pretoria for ignoring violent attacks against the country’s white minority and allowing the seizure of farms owned by Afrikaners and other European-descended families, and announcing that the US would stop all payments and subsidies to the country.

Trump also noted the United States skipped the G20 meetings in Johannesburg as a direct result and will block South Africa from hosting the 2026 summit.

Trump said South Africa “refuses to acknowledge or address the horrific Human Right Abuses endured by Afrikaners,” arguing that white farmers are being targeted for violence and dispossession: "The United States did not attend the G20 in South Africa, because the South African Government refuses to acknowledge or address the horrific Human Right Abuses endured by Afrikaners, and other descendants of Dutch, French, and German settlers. To put it more bluntly, they are killing white people, and randomly allowing their farms to be taken from them.

"Perhaps, worst of all, the soon to be out of business New York Times and the Fake News Media won’t issue a word against this genocide. That’s why all the Liars and Pretenders of the Radical Left Media are going out of business!! At the conclusion of the G20, South Africa refused to hand off the G20 Presidency to a Senior Representative from our U.S. Embassy, who attended the Closing Ceremony.

"Therefore, at my direction, South Africa will NOT be receiving an invitation to the 2026 G20, which will be hosted in the Great City of Miami, Florida next year. South Africa has demonstrated to the World they are not a country worthy of Membership anywhere, and we are going to stop all payments and subsidies to them, effective immediately. Thank you for your attention to this matter!!" Trump said in the post.

The comments after a summer of rising conflict between the US and South Africa, when white Afrikaners arrived in the United States under refugee status approved by the Trump administration. The families were met at Dulles International Airport by senior White House officials, including Deputy Secretary of State Chris Landau, who told them, “Welcome to the land of the free.”

In South Africa, President Cyril Ramaphosa responded by attacking the departing families as “cowards,” insisting they abandoned the country rather than face ongoing political changes.