South African President Cyril Ramaphosa found himself in an uncomfortable position during a visit to the White House when former U.S. President Donald Trump played a video promoting the long-debunked narrative of a so-called “white genocide” in South Africa.
According to reporting from CNN’s Larry Madowo, Ramaphosa sat in awkward silence as Trump presented the video in the Oval Office a moment that underscores just how far misinformation can reach, even in diplomatic spaces.
The claim Trump was pushing has been widely discredited. Multiple independent investigations and human rights reports have found no evidence to support allegations of an organized campaign of violence targeting white South African farmers. Still, the narrative has gained traction among far-right groups globally, who use it to stoke racial tensions and promote conspiracy theories.
Ramaphosa has previously condemned these claims as not only false but dangerous, warning that they distort the real challenges South Africa faces—including land reform, inequality, and crime—by injecting them with divisive, racially charged rhetoric.
While the White House moment may have passed without confrontation, it highlighted a broader issue: when leaders lend legitimacy to fringe theories, it emboldens bad actors and distracts from real policy solutions. For Ramaphosa, the Oval Office silence may have been strategic—but the message it sent, and the misinformation it platformed, lingers long after.