Trump showed old videos, took out context crosses in the demands of the genocide from South Africa

At a controversial oval office meeting on Wednesday, President Donald Trump confronted South African President Cyril Ramaphosa with images and video clips which, according to him, show an “genocide” in progress against the country’s white farmers.

But the images that the president underlined in the late room of the White House – showing a row of cross – was not what Trump succeeded.

“These are the – These are burial sites here,” said Trump about images.

“Each of these white things you see is a cross. And there are about a thousand. They are all white farmers, the family of white farmers. … These people are all killed,” added Trump.

In reality, the video shows a demonstration that took place on September 5, 2020, near Normandian, South Africa. The demonstration was called for the reported murder of two farmers at their home in the region a few days earlier, according to the local advertiser in Newcastle.

According to the point of sale, the crosses were placed along a section of the protest road by volunteers.

The demonstration was also described in a report at the time of the South African Institute for Racial Relations, which produced its own video showing the demonstration.

Hermann Pretorious, spokesperson of the Institute, told ABC News: “These crosses are not tombs, but they are crosses commemorating victims of farm murder.”

“They were temporarily presented in the context of a processional demonstration following the murders of Glenn and Vida Flatty, who were killed on their farm in Normanian in Kwazulu-Natal. The crosses were later withdrawn,” said Pretorious.

The images of Google Street View taken in May 2023 also show that, at that time, the crosses were no longer standing.

In another part of the video, there is a person in a red beret who sings several times “kill the boer, kill the farmer” and speak of taking land without compensation.

The person is Julius Malema, who founded the fighters of economic freedom of the Petit but Radical Party after being expelled from the African National Congress, of which Ramaphosa is a member, in 2013.

The person of the video who appears in the yellow shirt is the former South African president Jacob Zuma, who is now the head of the opposition Umkhonto Wesizwe (MK).

After Trump played the video, Ramaphosa said the speeches seen in Trump’s video did not represent his government’s policies. The Minister of Agriculture of the opposition in South Africa also said that many parties had worked to prevent government extremists.

During the meeting, Trump also displayed an impression of a blog article featuring an image of the Democratic Republic of Congo; Trump suggested that the image had been taken in South Africa.

Elon Musk, from South Africa and high -level advisor to Trump, was present Wednesday for the visit of Ramaphosa to the White House. He also expressed Trump’s allegations that white South Africans flee the country due to “violence and racist laws”.

Ramaphosa, the main political parties in South Africa and South African judge, however, denied the existence of a white genocide in the country.

In February 2025, a South African court ruled that the allegations of white genocide were not founded, calling them “not real” and “clearly imagined”.

Although the allegations of a white genocide were refused by the Court, it is true that there is a problem with the farmers murdered in South Africa.

Some of the murders are horrible and the rate of overall murder in South Africa is high, with 45 murders per 100,000 people, according to data collected in 2023, but nothing indicates that murders are focused on the breed.

During the meeting of the oval office with Trump, Ramaphosa said: “There is crime in our country. People who are killed, unfortunately, thanks to criminal activities are not only whites, the majority of them are blacks.”

The White House published a statement after the meeting entitled “President Trump is right on what is happening in South Africa”, doubling the unfounded affirmations of the administration of violence focused on the race in the nation.

The statement has a list of press clippings that say they support their position, pointing to Fox News, Breitbart and the BBC articles. Numerous press releases refer to individual acts or threats of violence.

Chris Looft, Kerem Inal, Lena Camilsetti and Gaby Vinick contributed to this report.