U.S. President Donald Trump has announced that he will not attend the upcoming G20 Summit in Johannesburg, arguing that South Africa no longer deserves membership in the group of the world’s major economies.
Speaking at the American Business Forum in Miami on Wednesday, Trump said, “South Africa shouldn’t even be in the G’s anymore, because what’s happened there is bad.”
He confirmed that Vice President J.D. Vance would represent the United States at the summit scheduled for November 22–23.
Trump has been an outspoken critic of South Africa’s land reform programme, accusing the government of persecuting white farmers and committing what he described as “massive human rights violations.”
Earlier this year, he signed an executive order to cut U.S. foreign aid to South Africa and to facilitate the resettlement of white Afrikaners in the United States, calling them victims of “unjust racial discrimination.”
In response, the South African government dismissed Trump’s claims as “factually incorrect” and misinformed, insisting that its land reform policies are aimed at correcting historical inequalities and promoting inclusive economic growth.
