How Trump misrepresented images to support claims of "White genocide" in South Africa, including Congo video

CBS News

23-05-2025

In his Oval Office meeting Wednesday with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, President Trump made allegations of persecution of White farmers in South Africa, which he used to justify granting refugee status to a group of Afrikaners earlier this month.
Ramaphosa has denied there is a genocide, and some Afrikaners say Mr. Trump is being lied to about a "White genocide" in the country.
In the last three months of 2024, 12 people were murdered on farms in South Africa, according to South African police. One was a White farmer, while the others were Black laborers or security workers, police said. Some estimates say in recent years there have been about 50 farm murders a year, but those do not specify race. The country had nearly 27,000 total murders last year, according to police data.
Mr. Trump played videos and held up articles during the White House meeting this week to support his unsubstantiated claims. But much of what he showed was being misrepresented. Here are three examples:
Reuters footage of bodies in the Democratic Republic of Congo
Mr. Trump held up a printed article from "American Thinker," a conservative online magazine, that included a screenshot, credited to Reuters, that the president said showed "all White farmers that are being buried."
President Trump holds up a printed article from "American Thinker" while accusing South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa of state-sanctioned violence against White farmers in South Africa during a press availability in the Oval Office at the White House on May 21, 2025.But the video the screenshot was taken from was of humanitarian workers lifting body bags in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Reuters said. The footage was taken in February after deadly battles with a Rwanda-backed Congolese rebel group in the city of Goma.
The "American Thinker" article was about both the Congo and South Africa, but the image does not show South Africa. Andrea Widburg, managing editor at "American Thinker" and the author of the post, told Reuters that Mr. Trump had "misidentified the image."
Line of white crosses
Mr. Trump claimed images of white crosses seen in the video played during his meeting with Ramaphosa showed burial sites of White farmers. However, the crosses were symbolic, part of a protest in 2020 after the killing of a White farming couple, according to local media coverage. A participant said they represented all farm murders, not solely White farmers, over the years.
The demonstration, held near Normandien, South Africa, was calling on the government to take more action against farm killings.
Ramaphosa acknowledged a problem of crime in his country.
"There is criminality in our country," he said to Mr. Trump. "People who do get killed unfortunately through criminal activity, are not only White people. Majority of them are Black people."
Rally footage of fringe politician
The video Mr. Trump presented included clips of Julius Malema, the leader of a far-left South African political party, the Economic Freedom Fighters. He is heard singing an anti-apartheid song that includes the lyric, "kill the Boer," referring to White farmers, in multiple clips from recent years.
Malema was kicked out of Ramaphosa's governing party, African National Congress, 13 years ago, and Ramaphosa said the EFF is a "small minority party" that does not represent the government. The ANC also distanced itself from the song more than a decade ago.
In a statement to Reuters after the meeting between Mr. Trump and Ramaphosa, the EFF said the song "expresses the desire to destroy the system of white minority control over the resources of South Africa."
Three South African courts have ruled against attempts to have it designated as hate speech, saying it is a historical liberation chant, not a literal incitement to violence, Reuters reported.
Nicole Brown Chau
Nicole Brown Chau is a deputy managing editor for CBSNews.com. She writes and edits national news, health stories, explainers and more.
, and contributed to this report.