West Palm Beach, Florida — US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he would ban South Africa from participating in the G20 summit next year Miami area club We will stop all payments and subsidies to the country because of its treatment of the US government representative in this year’s elections Global meeting.
Trump chose not to attend a US government delegation at last weekend’s summit hosted by South Africa, saying he did so because he is White Africans They were being Violently persecuted. that it claim South Africa that has been mired for decades ApartheidIt was also rejected baseless.
In a post on social media, the Republican president said that South Africa had refused to hand over the responsibilities of hosting the G20 to a senior representative of the US embassy upon the conclusion of the summit.
“Therefore, upon my direction, South Africa will not receive an invitation to the 2026 G20, which will be hosted by the greater city of Miami, Florida, next year,” Trump said on Truth Social.
“South Africa has proven to the world that it is not a country worthy of membership anywhere, and we will stop all payments and subsidies to it, immediately,” he said.
South Africa said it considered the US decision to appoint a local embassy official to hand over the G20 an insult. A statement issued by the office of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said that the ceremony was held at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building after the summit “because the United States was not present at the summit.”
The statement said that Ramaphosa “took note of President Donald Trump’s unfortunate statement regarding South Africa’s participation in the G20 meetings in 2026.”
She also responded to Trump’s widely rejected claims that Afrikaner farmers are being killed and their land being confiscated, saying Trump “continues to implement punitive measures against South Africa based on misinformation and distortions about our country.”
In some ways, Trump views next year’s G20 summit as a personal one, given that he has announced it will be held at his golf club in Doral, Florida.
This year’s summit in Johannesburg was the first to be held in Africa He was interrupted By the United States, a founding member of the G20 and the world’s largest economy. Washington did not sign the declaration of the meeting, which gave more attention to issues affecting developing countries, and the Trump administration expressed this. Its opposition to the South African agendaespecially the parts focusing on climate change.
The United States now holds the rotating presidency of the G20, making the long-term impact of South Africa’s declaration unclear.
Trump has claimed that white African farmers in South Africa They are killed and their lands are seized. the Government of South Africa Others, including some Africans themselves, say Trump’s claims are the result of misinformation.
South Africa has been a target of Trump since his return to office at the beginning of the year with his administration Portraying the country as anti-American Because of its diplomatic relations with China, Russia and Iran.
Last month, the Trump administration announced it would do so Restricting the number of refugees They annually admit 7,500 people into the United States, with most places reserved for whites in South Africa. Trump suspended the refugee program on his first day in office in January. Since then, only a very small number have entered the country, most of them white South Africans. In May, the administration welcomed B A group of 59 white South Africans As refugees.
Afrikaners are South Africans descended mainly from the Dutch but also from French and German colonial settlers who first came to the country in the 17th century.
Africans were at the heart Apartheid system of white minority rule From 1948 to 1994, which led to decades of hostility between them and the black majority in South Africa. But Afrikaners are not a homogeneous group, and some of them fought apartheid.
There are an estimated 2.7 million Afrikaners out of South Africa’s population of 62 million.
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AP writer Gerald Imray in Johannesburg contributed to this report.