South African president was ‘Zelenskyed' on Trump's home turf

Yahoo

22-05-2025

Cyril Ramaphosa must have prepped for an awkward meeting.
After all, just a week earlier the Trump administration chartered a Boeing 767 to fly 59 Afrikaner farmers out of his country so they could claim refugee status amid allegations that the white population faced a genocide.
But he may not have reckoned with Donald Trump's sense of theatre.
'Turn the lights down and just put this on,' he directed his aides in the Oval Office. 'It's right behind you.'
Ministers, reporters, two of the greatest golfers of all time, and the world's richest man craned their necks to watch as the room exploded with the sounds of Julius Malema, a fringe South African politician, singing and dancing to 'Dubul' ibhunu.'
The translation of the Xhosa title leaves nothing to the imagination: 'Kill the Boer – Kill the Farmer.'
Nothing in Mr Ramaphosa's briefing notes could have prepared him for this cauldron, as Mr Trump went to town, narrating another portion of video that he said showed more than a thousand burial sites of white farmers. The American president was thin on detail, but none of that mattered.
His guest had been well and truly 'Zelenskyed,' ambushed in the Oval Office in front of rolling TV cameras. Whatever the merits of the arguments, a president who sees the world in zero sum terms was going to walk away with the win.
The presence of an extra set of journalists, from South African media, crammed behind the sofas, raised the temperature and the sense of excitement. It was the closest thing to a cage fight that you'll ever see in daylight hours – perhaps no coincidence given that Steven Cheung, the White House director of communications, previously worked for the Ultimate Fighting Championship in Las Vegas.
Credit: Reuters
The South Africans had done everything right. Mr Ramaphosa arrived with golfers Ernie Els and Retief Goosen, a surefire way to curry favour with a golf nut in the Oval Office and a nimble way to change the subject if needed. He even brought Johann Rupert, a luxury goods magnate and the sort of billionaire that Mr Trump admires.
Facing them was Mr Trump's own South African billionaire, in the form of Elon Musk. This time, the president needed no help from him, instead calling on Natalie Harp, the blonde aide nicknamed his human printer, to deliver the first blow.
'We have news stories,' said Mr Trump, as he looked for printouts of murders in South Africa. 'Is Natalie here?' With the lights dimmed and the video rolling, a thick sheaf of paper arrived at the president's side.
His host flicked through news reports bound together with golden paperclips, listing the contents: 'Death, death, death, horrible death, death.'
His guest resorted to holding up his hand, trying to get a word in as Mr Trump continued his steamroller act.
'Let me clarify,' said Mr Ramaphosa, as he tried to describe how the video had no connection to his government or its policies, that no one had the right to steal land or commit murder.
But clarification doesn't really help visitors to the Oval Office. It is Mr Trump's home turf, where portraits of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Ronald Reagan look down on him, surrounded by new golden mouldings and statues, and where he revels in the tight, intimate quarters.
In front of him, on a coffee table, stood a model of a much delayed new Air Force One, ordered by Mr Trump during his first term. 'I'm sorry I don't have a plane to give you,' said Mr Ramaphosa.
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