Horrible things going on in South Africa – Donald Trump

US President Donald Trump doubled down on his criticism of South Africa during a speech at the Turning Point USA rally in Phoenix, Arizona, on Friday, 17 April 2026.

During his address, Trump highlighted that his administration suspended all refugee resettlement except for persecuted South Africans.

“They’re being persecuted in South Africa. In South Africa, there’s a very horrible thing going on in South Africa. It’s a genocide. It’s a horrible thing,” he said.

“They kill people if they’re white. If you’re a white person in South Africa, they kill white farmers. Terrible, terrible. We can’t let it go on.”

He explained that the United States made it possible for white South Africans to come into their country as refugees.

“’You come into our country, and we let you come in. You get a green card, and you get a passport. You can stay in our country,” he said.

The United States President added that people in his country don’t like to talk about it, but that it should be discussed.

“The New York Times wrote a story about it years ago, which was the only story they ever wrote because I’m sure the reporter got fired immediately,” he said.

President Cyril Ramaphosa’s spokesperson, Vincent Magwenya, hit back, saying South Africa knows its painful past too well.

“We appreciate our present moment. We are defining our future, owning our truth as we own our destiny. We are rational and undeterred,” he said.

ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula also responded, saying that Trump’s subtle message is that black people are savages who kill with impunity.

“The racist trope that we are uncivilised and animal-like as a race is what Afriforum has peddled, and now Trump is reinforcing in his messaging,” he said.

“The world is on our side in pushing back against this distortion, disinformation, and racist branding of black people.”

Mbalula added that there is no genocide against white people in South Africa, arguing that black people are the ones who have suffered.

He said black people have faced the brunt of a savage system designed to strip them first of their dignity and ultimately their humanity.

This, he said, ranged from the slave trade, Jim Crow, and apartheid to modern economic exclusion. “I will always call out this lie every time it is peddled,” he said.

The DA’s Ryan Coetzee also said there is no white genocide in South Africa. “There is, however, an epidemic of violent crime that affects all communities,” he said.

“It urgently needs to be brought under control, though it is hard to imagine how, given the utterly corrupted nature of the South African Police Service.”