US President Donald Trump announced that no American officials would attend the upcoming G20 Summit in South Africa.
Trump criticized South Africa’s land expropriation policies, alleging discrimination against white South Africans.
Trump administration has restricted refugee admissions, prioritizing white South Africans while reducing overall refugee intake to a historic low.
US President Donald Trump on Friday announced that no US government officials would attend the G20 Summit in South Africa later this month. Trump has repeatedly mentioned that he will not be attending the November 22–23 summit owing to his tussle with South Africa’s policies on land and Israel. Earlier in September, Trump said Vice President JD Vance would likely attend the G20 Summit.
"It is a total disgrace that the G20 will be held in South Africa," Trump posted on his Truth Social handle. "Afrikaners are being killed and slaughtered, and their land and farms are being illegally confiscated. No U.S. government official will attend as long as these human rights abuses continue. I look forward to hosting the 2026 G20 in Miami, Florida," he said.
Washington vs. Pretoria
Since his re-election to the Oval Office in January, Trump has claimed that white South Africans are being discriminated against and persecuted in the Black-majority country—a claim that South African officials reject. Friction first began when South African President Cyril Ramaphosa introduced a new law in January seeking to address land ownership disparities, which have left three-quarters of privately owned land in the hands of the white minority, a report by Al Jazeera said.
However, the new legislation allows the state to expropriate land, which Ramaphosa says will create a framework for fair redistribution by allowing state officials to take land without compensation in exceptional circumstances. Shortly after the introduction of the Expropriation Act, Trump accused South Africa of “confiscating land and treating certain classes of people VERY BADLY.”
In January, Trump also suspended the refugee admissions programme—except for white South Africans, who started arriving in the US as refugees. In 2026, the administration limited refugee admissions to 7,500, the lowest in history, and stated that most of those admitted would be white South Africans, The Times of India reported.
