Trump's image of dead ‘white farmers' came from Reuters footage in Congo, not South Africa
JOHANNESBURG: US President Donald Trump showed a screenshot of Reuters video taken in the Democratic Republic of Congo as part of what he falsely presented on Wednesday as evidence of mass killings of white South Africans.
'These are all white farmers that are being buried,' said Trump, holding up a print-out of an article accompanied by the picture during a contentious Oval Office meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.
In fact, the video, published by Reuters on February 3 and subsequently verified by the news agency's fact check team, showed humanitarian workers lifting body bags in the Congolese city of Goma. The image was pulled from Reuters footage shot following deadly battles with Rwanda-backed M23 rebels.
The blog post showed to Ramaphosa by Trump during the White House meeting was published by American Thinker, a conservative online magazine, about conflict and racial tensions in South Africa and Congo.
The post did not caption the image but identified it as a 'YouTube screen grab' with a link to a video news report about Congo on YouTube, which credited Reuters.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment. Andrea Widburg, managing editor at American Thinker and the author of the post in question, wrote in reply to a Reuters query that Trump had 'misidentified the image.'
She added, however, that the post, which referred to what it called Ramaphosa's 'dysfunctional, race-obsessed Marxist government,' had 'pointed out the increasing pressure placed on white South Africans.'
The footage from which the picture was taken shows a mass burial following an M23 assault on Goma, filmed by Reuters video journalist Djaffar Al Katanty.
'That day, it was extremely difficult for journalists to get in ... I had to negotiate directly with M23 and coordinate with the ICRC to be allowed to film,' Al Katanty said. 'Only Reuters has video.'
Al Katanty said seeing Trump holding the article with the screengrab of his video came as a shock.
'In view of all the world, President Trump used my image, used what I filmed in DRC to try to convince President Ramaphosa that in his country, white people are being killed by Black people,' Al Katanty said.
Ramaphosa visited Washington this week to try to mend ties with the United States after persistent criticism from Trump in recent months over South Africa's land laws, foreign policy, and alleged bad treatment of its white minority, which South Africa denies.
Trump interrupted the televised meeting with Ramaphosa to play a video, which he said showed evidence of genocide of white farmers in South Africa. This conspiracy theory, which has circulated in far-right chat rooms for years, is based on false claims.
Trump then proceeded to flip through printed copies of articles that he said detailed murders of white South Africans, saying 'death, death, death, horrible death.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Al Arabiya
2 hours ago
- Al Arabiya
‘Our city is not on fire': LA residents reject Trump rhetoric
Just blocks from where a handful of die-hard protesters faced police in Los Angeles on Wednesday, residents were enjoying lunch in the sun and shrugging off Donald Trump's claims their city was burning. Six days after unrest began – prompting the US president to send soldiers into the streets, over the furious protests of local officials – life in the City of Angels was going on largely as normal. 'Everything is hunky dory right here at Ground Zero,' Lynn Sturgis, a retired teacher who was protesting outside the federal complex that has been at the heart of the demonstrations in Downtown Los Angeles, told AFP. 'Our city is not at all on fire, it's not burning down, as our terrible leader is trying to tell you.' The demonstrations began Friday as immigration authorities carried out raids on undocumented migrants in the sprawling metropolis. They have continued each day since – mostly peacefully, but tarnished by several spectacular incidents of violence, including torched cars and sporadic clashes with law enforcement. Trump has insisted that if he had not taken the extraordinary step of sending troops into Los Angeles over the weekend, 'it would be burning to the ground right now.' 'Not at all... this is very calm,' protester Ellen Carpenter, a retired federal worker who was demonstrating alongside Sturgis, told AFP. 'I lived in Washington, DC for a long time, so I was part of very large protests there, you know, millions and millions of people. This is a little wimpy by comparison.' 'This whole thing has been manufactured by the current administration,' Sturgis said. Trump's promises to crack down on illegal immigration helped propel him back into the White House. He seized the opportunity presented by the Los Angeles rallies to order the California National Guard to deploy along with hundreds of Marines – a move state governor Gavin Newsom called 'dictatorial.' Los Angeles real estate agent Tracey, who declined to give her last name, said the deployment was a 'mistake.' 'I don't feel safe' with the military presence in the city, she said, even as she admitted that the protests had at times been 'scary.' Retired actor Thomas welcomed the troops, however. 'As soon as it gets dark, thugs come out and cause trouble,' the 69-year-old told AFP downtown. It is the National Guard that has calmed things down, he argued – 'bringing in more force. That's all they understand... You have to step in and put your foot down.' Restaurants in the streets surrounding the protest area were packed at lunchtime Wednesday. Workers cleaned graffiti sprayed by protesters on federal buildings as curious passers-by stopped to watch and snap photos. But there were some signs of apprehension as a handful of businesses were boarding up, worried that protests planned for the weekend could spiral into more violence. Trump will hold a military parade in Washington for his birthday on Saturday that coincides with planned protests in more cities across the country. 'There's lots of expensive glass behind these boards that we're worried about, so we're not going to take any chances,' Chis Gonzalez, who was overseeing the boarding up of one downtown business, told AFP. 'Saturday, you know, seems like it's going to be a big protest. We're just anticipating the worst... Not saying the protests are bad, but it's definitely scary when you have a business to protect.'
Arab News
4 hours ago
- Arab News
Trump is receptive to contacts with North Korean leader, White House says
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump would welcome communications with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un after having had friendly relations with Kim during his first term, the White House said on Wednesday. 'The president remains receptive to correspondence with Kim Jong Un,' White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters. She was responding to a report by Seoul-based NK News, a website that monitors North Korea, that the North's delegation at the United Nations in New York had repeatedly refused to accept a letter from Trump to Kim. Trump and Kim held three summits during Trump's 2017-2021 first term and exchanged a number of what Trump called 'beautiful' letters. In June 2019, Trump briefly stepped into North Korea from the demilitarized zone with South Korea. Little progress was made, however, at reining in North Korea's nuclear program, and Trump acknowledged in March that Pyongyang is a 'nuclear power.' Since Trump's first-term summitry with Kim ended, North Korea has shown no interest in returning to talks. The attempts at rapprochement come after the election in South Korea of a new president, Lee Jae-myung, who has pledged to reopen dialogue with North Korea. As a gesture of engagement on Wednesday Lee suspended South Korean loudspeakers blasting music and messages into the North at the Demilitarized Zone along their shared border. Analysts say, however, that engaging North Korea will likely be more difficult for both Lee and Trump than it was in the US president's first term. Since then North Korea has significantly expanded its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs, and developed close ties with Russia through direct support for Moscow's war in Ukraine, to which Pyongyang has provided both troops and weaponry. Kim said in a message to Russian President Vladimir Putin that his country will always stand with Moscow, state media reported on Thursday.
Arab News
9 hours ago
- Arab News
Police detain more than 20 people during Los Angeles protest curfew
LOS ANGELES: Police detained more than 20 people, mostly on curfew violations, on the first night of restrictions in downtown Los Angeles and used crowd-control projectiles to break up hundreds of protesters demonstrating against President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown, officials said Wednesday. But there were fewer clashes between police and demonstrators than on previous nights, and by daybreak, the downtown streets were bustling with residents walking dogs and commuters clutching coffee cups. Officials said the curfew was necessary to stop vandalism and theft by agitators after five days of protests, which have mostly been concentrated downtown. Demonstrations have also spread to other cities nationwide, including Dallas and Austin in Texas, and Chicago and New York, where thousands rallied and more arrests were made. LA's nightly curfew, which the mayor said would remain in effect as long as necessary, covers a 1-square-mile (2.5-square-kilometer) section that includes an area where protests have occurred since Friday in the sprawling city of 4 million. The city of Los Angeles encompasses roughly 500 square miles (1,295 square kilometers). 'If there are raids that continue, if there are soldiers marching up and down our streets, I would imagine that the curfew will continue,' Mayor Karen Bass said. The tensions in LA and elsewhere emerged as immigration authorities seek to dramatically increase the number of daily arrests across the country. Bass said the raids spread fear across the city at the behest of the White House. 'We started off by hearing the administration wanted to go after violent felons, gang members, drug dealers,' she told a news conference. 'But when you raid Home Depots and workplaces, when you tear parents and children apart, and when you run armored caravans through our streets, you're not trying to keep anyone safe. You're trying to cause fear and panic.' Referring to the protests, she added: 'If you drive a few blocks outside of downtown, you don't know that anything is happening in the city at all.' Some 2,000 National Guard soldiers are in the city, and about half of them have been protecting federal buildings and agents, said Army Maj. Gen. Scott Sherman, head of Task Force 51, which is overseeing the deployment of National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles. About 700 Marines will soon join the Guard troops, but they are still undergoing training and will not be mobilized Wednesday, Sherman said. Another 2,000 Guard troops should be on the streets by Thursday, he said. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom has accused Trump of drawing a 'military dragnet' across the nation's second-largest city with his escalating use of the National Guard, which Trump activated, along with the Marines, over the objections of city and state leaders. Newsom asked a court to put an emergency stop to the military helping federal immigration agents. The assistance includes some guardsmen now standing protectively around agents as they carry out arrests. A judge set a hearing for Thursday, giving the administration several days to continue its activities. The change moves the military closer to engaging in law enforcement actions such as deportations, as Trump has promised as part of his immigration crackdown. The Guard has the authority to temporarily detain people who attack officers, but any arrests would be made by law enforcement. The president posted on the Truth Social platform that the city 'would be burning to the ground' if he had not sent in the military. Meanwhile in New York City, police said they took 86 people into custody during protests in lower Manhattan that lasted into Wednesday morning. Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said the vast majority of demonstrators were peaceful. A 66-year-old woman in Chicago was injured when she was struck by a car during downtown protests Tuesday evening, police said. Video showed a car speeding down a street where people were protesting. In Texas, where police in Austin used chemical irritants to disperse several hundred demonstrators Monday, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott's office said Texas National Guard troops were 'on standby' in areas where demonstrations are planned. Guard members were sent to San Antonio, but Police Chief William McManus said he had not been told how many troops were deployed or their role ahead of planned protests Wednesday night and Saturday. Authorities announce arrests in protests Two people accused of throwing Molotov cocktails at police during the LA protests over the weekend face charges that could bring up to 10 years in prison, the Justice Department announced Wednesday. No one was injured by the devices. One of the suspects is a US citizen, and the other overstayed a tourist visa and was in the US illegally, authorities said. 'We are looking at hundreds of people,' US Attorney Bill Essayli said. 'If you took part in these riots and were looking to cause trouble, we will come looking for you.' Trump, Newsom locked in a war of words Trump has called the protesters 'animals' and 'a foreign enemy' and described Los Angeles in dire terms that the governor says is nowhere close to the truth. Newsom called Trump's actions the start of an 'assault' on democracy. 'California may be first, but it clearly will not end here. Other states are next,' he said. The protests began Friday after federal immigration raids arrested dozens of workers in Los Angeles. Protesters blocked a major freeway and set cars on fire over the weekend, and police responded with tear gas, rubber bullets and flash-bang grenades. Thousands of people have peacefully rallied outside City Hall and hundreds more protested outside a federal complex that includes a detention center where some immigrants are being held following workplace raids. Despite the protests, immigration enforcement activity has continued throughout the county, with city leaders and community groups reporting US Immigration and Customs Enforcement present at libraries, car washes and Home Depots. School graduations in Los Angeles have increased security over fears of ICE action, and some have offered parents the option to watch on Zoom. Los Angeles police detained 200 people related to the protests throughout the day on Tuesday, including 67 who were occupying a freeway, according to the city's chief. The majority of arrests since the protests began have been for failing to disperse, while a few others were for assault with a deadly weapon, looting and vandalism. At least seven police officers have been injured.
