Fact Check: Trump’s Claims on White Genocide in South Africa

In a tense Oval Office meeting that has drawn international attention, U.S. President Donald Trump leveled numerous false claims about South Africa’s white minority during talks with President Cyril Ramaphosa, repeatedly interrupting his counterpart’s attempts to correct the record.

The contentious meeting on Wednesday saw Trump present a video compilation featuring years-old inflammatory speeches by South African politicians that have been circulating in far-right social media circles. Throughout the exchange, Trump made several assertions about the treatment of white South Africans that stand in stark contrast to documented evidence.

Central to Trump’s claims was the allegation of a “genocide” targeting white farmers in South Africa—a conspiracy theory that has persisted in fringe white South African groups since the end of apartheid in 1994 and gained traction in global far-right communities over the past decade. Tech billionaire Elon Musk, a South African-born Trump ally, has been a vocal proponent of this theory.

Proponents of this narrative point to murders of white farmers in remote areas as evidence of politically orchestrated ethnic cleansing rather than conventional crime. They accuse the government of either encouraging these killings or deliberately ignoring them—allegations South African authorities vehemently deny.

The data, however, tells a different story. In a nation with one of the world’s highest murder rates—approximately 72 daily killings in a population of 60 million—the overwhelming majority of victims are Black South Africans. Of the 26,232 murders recorded by South African police in 2024, only 44 were connected to farming communities, with just eight victims being farmers.

Even statistics compiled by white farmers themselves contradict the genocide narrative. Afrikaner farmers’ union TLU-SA has documented 1,363 white farmer murders since 1990—averaging about 40 annually and representing less than 1% of total murders in the country. Earlier this year, the Western Cape High Court explicitly ruled that claims of white genocide were “clearly imagined and not real” in a case involving donations to a white supremacist organization.

Trump also falsely claimed that the South African government is forcibly seizing land from white farmers without compensation. While South Africa does have policies aimed at addressing land ownership inequalities stemming from apartheid and colonialism, no land has been expropriated. Instead, the government has attempted to encourage voluntary sales by white landowners.

These efforts have yielded limited results. White South Africans, who comprise less than 8% of the population, still control approximately three-quarters of privately-owned farmland, while Black South Africans, who make up 80% of the population, own just 4%. A law signed by Ramaphosa in January does allow for land expropriation “in the public interest” in exceptional cases without compensation, but it mandates that authorities first attempt to reach an agreement with landowners. To date, this legislation has not been implemented.

During the meeting, Trump also mischaracterized the historical liberation song “Kill the Boer” as a literal call for violence against Afrikaners. This chant, seen in one video clip featuring opposition leader Julius Malema of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), has been ruled by three South African courts not to constitute hate speech, as it represents historical resistance against apartheid rather than an incitement to violence.

“We didn’t know that we would form part of those theatrics to try and justify the existence of a white genocide that is obviously not occurring in South Africa,” EFF spokesperson Sinawo Thambo told Reuters after the meeting. The party clarified that the song “expresses the desire to destroy the system of white minority control over the resources of South Africa.”

Trump’s presentation included several blatant misrepresentations. He showed footage of white crosses along a highway, claiming they marked “burial sites” for white farmers, when in fact they were symbolic markers placed during a 2020 protest against farm murders. He also displayed an image purportedly showing buried white farmers that was actually Reuters footage of humanitarian workers burying bodies in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, following battles against Rwanda-backed rebels earlier this year.

The meeting highlights growing international concern about the spread of misinformation regarding South Africa’s complex social and political landscape, particularly as the country continues to work through the legacy of apartheid nearly three decades after its official end.