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Ramaphosa struggles to mend fences with Trump

Ramaphosa struggles to mend fences with Trump

Yahoo17-07-2025
The Trump administration is treating South Africa almost like a pariah, blacklisting its envoys, refusing to send top-level officials to meetings it hosts, and threatening to hit the nation with such high tariffs that its economic crisis is likely to deepen.
The latest sign of this came with the revelation by the second-biggest party in South Africa's coalition government, the Democratic Alliance (DA), that the US government had rejected President Cyril Ramaphosa's special envoy, denying him a diplomatic visa in May and refusing to recognise him as an "official interlocutor".
Ramaphosa had created the post for Mcebisi Jonas, the non-executive chairman of mobile phone giant MTN and a respected former deputy finance minister, to improve South Africa's rock-bottom relationship with the US.
Ramaphosa's spokesman accused the DA of "disinformation", but did not explicitly deny the party's claim. The US State Department declined to comment when contacted by the BBC, citing "visa record confidentiality".
Jonas's appointment came after President Donald Trump had cut off aid to South Africa, accused Ramaphosa's government of persecuting white people, condemned it for binging a genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ), and for "reinvigorating" relations with Iran - an implacable foe of the US.
Priyal Singh, a South Africa foreign policy expert at the Pretoria-based Institute for Security Studies think-tank, told the BBC that if the DA's claims about Jonas were true, it would be in line with the Trump administration's strategy to give South Africa the "cold shoulder, and cut off channels of communication that it so desperately needs".
The US has not only cut back bilateral relations with South Africa, but also boycotted it in global bodies like the G20 - which Ramaphosa currently chairs, hoping to advance the interests of developing nations in talks with the world's richest states.
The latest sign of this was US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's decision to skip Thursday's meeting of G20 finance ministers in South Africa, preferring to send a lower-ranking official instead.
Bessent skipped a similar meeting in February, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio stayed away from a meeting of G20 foreign ministers, saying Ramaphosa's government was doing "very bad things" and he could not "coddle anti-Americanism".
Ramaphosa had hoped to get relations with the US back on an even keel after Trump invited him to the Oval Office in May - only for the US president to ambush him by showing footage and brandishing a sheaf of spurious reports to advance his widely discredited claim that a genocide was taking place against white people in South Africa.
Jonas was strikingly absent from Ramaphosa's high-powered delegation, giving credence to the DA's claim that he was unwelcome in Washington.
This put South Africa back to square one as the US had expelled its ambassador to Washington, Ebrahim Rasool, after he accused Trump, in a leaked speech given at a meeting of a think-tank, of "mobilising a supremacism" and trying to "project white victimhood as a dog whistle" as the white population faced becoming a minority in the US.
In a politically odd decision, Ramaphosa left the post vacant, despite its significance, suggesting that his government had a dearth of well qualified career diplomats who could rebuild relations with South Africa's second-biggest trading partner.
Instead, Ramaphosa pinned his hopes on a special envoy who, he said at the time of Jonas's appointment, would "lead negotiations, foster strategic partnerships and engage with US government officials and private-sector leaders to promote our nation's interests".
But it is unclear how Ramaphosa expected Jonas to achieve this given that he, like Rasool, had made controversial remarks about Trump, calling him a "racist" and a "narcissistic right-winger" in a 2020 speech that came back to haunt him after his appointment.
This was compounded by the fact that MTN had a 49% stake in Iran's telecom company IranCell, a major concern for the US.
Compared to its previous stances, South Africa was "more circumspect" - as Mr Singh put it - in its response to US air strikes on Iran in June, merely saying that it viewed the conflict with "great anxiety" and hoped that it could be resolved through dialogue.
W Gyude Moore, a policy analyst at the US-based Center for Global Development, told the BBC that it was not surprising that South Africa was in Trump's firing line.
He pointed out that South Africa championed what Trump's support-base saw as "woke culture". For instance, Ramaphosa regarded the G20 as a forum through which to promote international "solidarity, equality and sustainability", which Rubio had opposed, equating it to "diversity, equity and inclusion", as well as climate change.
Mr Moore said this was also borne out in the Trump's administration's attitude towards South Africa's "black empowerment" policy, accusing it of "race-based discrimination" against white people. Ramaphosa's government sees it as necessary to address the legacy of the racist system of apartheid.
"I cannot see how the differences can be resolved. South Africa will just have to carry on, and strengthen ties with other countries. It's not the only one in the crosshairs of the Trump administration," Mr Moore added.
But it is a major blow to South Africa, as it had maintained strong trade and aid relations with successive Republican and Democratic administrations despite having sharp differences with them.
Mr Singh pointed out that South Africa, for example, opposed the Republican George W Bush's war in Iraq and Afghanistan, but South Africa still benefited from Pepfar, the programme he had established to tackle HIV/Aids, until the Trump administration slashed funding earlier this year.
"The Trump administration is completely different, and caught everyone off-guard. South Africa will just have to weather out the storm, and try to mitigate the damage," Mr Singh said.
But the economic consequences could be devastating - especially if Trump imposes 30% tariffs on South African goods from 1 August, as he has threatened to do.
South Africa's central bank chief Lesetja Kganyago said the tariffs could lead to around 100,000 job losses - worrying for a country where the unemployment rate stands at a staggering 32.9%.
The tariffs would hit South Africa's agriculture sector hard. This is ironic as Trump has portrayed himself as a champion of the country's Afrikaner farmers, offering them refugee status in the US.
It also gives them an opportunity to farm in the US and boost its economy in line with Trump's "America First" policy.
More BBC stories on US-South Africa relations:
Is there a genocide of white South Africans as Trump claims?
Unpacking the South African land law that so inflames Trump
How Trump-Ramaphosa confrontation went down in South Africa
Go to BBCAfrica.com for more news from the African continent.
Follow us on Twitter @BBCAfrica, on Facebook at BBC Africa or on Instagram at bbcafrica
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Transcript: Ted Carter, The Ohio State University president, on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan," July 27, 2025
Transcript: Ted Carter, The Ohio State University president, on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan," July 27, 2025

CBS News

time4 minutes ago

  • CBS News

Transcript: Ted Carter, The Ohio State University president, on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan," July 27, 2025

The following is the transcript of an interview with Ted Carter, The Ohio State University president, that aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on July 27, 2025. MARGARET BRENNAN: We go now to Columbus, Ohio and the president of The Ohio State University, Ted Carter. President Carter, welcome to 'Face The Nation.' OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT TED CARTER: Margaret, good to be with you on this Sunday from Columbus, Ohio. MARGARET BRENNAN: I wanted to ask you very directly about these Trump administration claims that Ohio State is one of 60 universities that they deemed may have antisemitic practices and policies on campus. They say you're being investigated for them and for failing to end diversity policies, which could be a violation of the Civil Rights Act. What's the status of the probes? And how much pressure are you under? CARTER: To be quite frank, I'm not feeling a lot of pressure. Our understanding is we're on those lists because we had been previously on those lists under the Biden administration. We had been working with the Office of Civil Rights during that administration, and I think mostly that was a holdover. We are more than happy to talk to anybody from the Office of Civil Rights. We stand behind our actions. We know how we acted during the time of the protests. We never had an encampment here at Ohio State. We had some attempted we didn't allow that, and that's our long-standing rules on the Oval, which is the centerpiece of our campus. So I'm confident that as this plays out forward, that we're going to be just fine. MARGARET BRENNAN: The Trump administration did publish Ohio State on the list of universities it's probing, and when you look at some of the issues they've raised at other places, you look at the result of freezing $3 billion in contracts at Harvard, 1 billion at Cornell, hundreds of millions of dollars of research funding at universities like Brown. Are you worried that your federal funds could be in jeopardy because of this? CARTER: Well, like I always say to my staff and my people, if we do the right things for the right reasons, everything will play out. And we've been doing it that way since I've been here since one. January of 2024. Our research funding here at Ohio State has grown leaps and bounds over the last couple years. We're actually ranked number 11 in the country, ahead of Harvard, ahead of UNC Chapel Hill. Our revenues last year were $1.6 billion, 775 million of that came from the federal government, largely in NIH and NSF. As we sit here today, we've had some research grants impacted, but in the tens of millions of dollars, nothing like you're seeing at our Ivy League colleagues, and a lot of that is still in litigation. So I can't even tell you what the number of dollars that we may lose, but against the $1.6 billion it's pretty small, even though it's had some impact on some of our researchers. Unlike some of our counterparts, we have a significant research arm here, 14,000 faculty, post doc students, that do the research here. And it is significant. It goes way beyond the numbers and the dollars. It's what it's what it's doing for the community, what it's doing to extend and save and change lives, and what it's doing in agriculture, what it's doing for our police force. So what I would tell you is, at this moment today- even compared to where we were last year, we're still up in our research revenue about 7% from where we were last year, and we're- we're- we're proceeding to ask for more grants so that we can be a cancer free world here in our lifetime. MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, we all hope for that future, sir, but you sound not to be concerned. But I did read that earlier when you had the buckeyes football team at the White House earlier in the year- and that was well covered, the Wall Street Journal said you told President Trump and Vice President Vance that quote, Ohio State is not the enemy. Why did you feel you had to say that? What did you mean? CARTER: Well, that might have been taken a little bit out of context. I kind of said that in jest, a little bit to the vice president when I had a chance to meet with him, and we had a long conversation. It was a very productive conversation. I won't go into all the details, but the point is, they know that Ohio State is doing the right things for the right reasons. I have said publicly that I believe the future of higher education is going to go through the large public land grant flagship institutions like the Ohio State University, I look at what we're doing today, and yes, like many other universities, there's a lot of concern about the future, what's coming out of the federal government, even what's coming out of our state government here in Ohio. But right now, I feel like we can still play defense, still understand how to adjust, kind of make sure that we're getting our bat on the ball, so to speak, in playing defense and protecting the plate, but we're also looking at how we can play offense. This is a time where institutions like Ohio State, we are very financially secure. We're actually looking to invest in ourselves. I just reflect on the graduation ceremony that we just had this past May. We produce about 18,000 In graduates a year. But at that ceremony, we graduated 12,400- all of them, by the way, got their diploma that day that they earned. And 90% of those students- 90% already had a job or they were going to another higher academic endeavor. And 70% of those undergraduate students are staying in the state of Ohio. 66% of the PhD and masters are staying in the state of Ohio. This is a wonderful workforce development program. That is what is raising the confidence of Ohioans and the American public in higher education, and that is starting to change. MARGARET BRENNAN: Vice President Vance was on this program a number of times- and one of them when he was still a senator. I spoke to him about his views on higher education. He's an Ohio State alum, undergrad, and he said he believes universities- he wasn't speaking of yours, but he said universities are 'controlled by left wing foundations,' and they're going in the wrong direction. Do you think he has a point? CARTER: I think higher education has started to build that reputation. And you can even see that in the Gallup-Lumina polls. You know, I was the superintendent of the Naval Academy from 2014 to 2019 you know, and that Gallup poll in 2015 said that nearly 60% of Americans had high confidence in post-secondary education. Now go ahead and just move that needle nine years forward, and yet, two in three Americans said they did not have confidence in higher education. That's a really bad mark. Americans were saying higher education costs too much. They were saying that the return on investment was difficult to prove. They even were saying some of the research being done may not impact them or their families. And yes, there was this conversation about the potential indoctrination of students, or that institutions were leaning very liberal. You know, we as administrators of higher education maybe ought to listen to the American public and say, maybe we haven't always gotten it right. So I'm here to say, here at the Ohio State University, we have paid attention to that. We are making efforts to make affordability a key issue for students. I mentioned that graduating class, 57% of those undergraduates left with zero debt. Zero debt. And the other 43% that left with debt was less than $24,000. And as we look across our hiring practices, I have 8,500 faculty. It is the best group of faculty I have ever worked with in my 12 years of leading in higher and that's saying quite a bit. I will tell you that as we hire the future, we're looking across the entire political spectrum for who we hire. MARGARET BRENNAN: On that point, you talked about what happened at the state level. The Republican controlled state legislature passed a law that eliminates the diversity programs, it does a number of things. But it also requires professors to post their course syllabus- syllabi online and their contact information. Do you think that this is meant to intimidate? Are you concerned? Is your faculty concerned about the focus on what they're doing? CARTER: Yes, I have talked to our faculty through our faculty senate and our leadership. There are some concerns, of course, because we've not done that before. We've got some time before we implement that. We have put all the pieces of Senate Bill 1 which is the General Assembly's bill here in the state of Ohio, into the implementation phase. We're still working through some of the details, but let me tell you the principles of academic freedom, what is taught in the classroom, the move towards scholarly pursuit, the research that we do here at Ohio State, those are things that we are still very passionate about, and I know that we're going to continue that work, and yet we'll still follow the law. We'll still follow some of the federal policies that are coming out. We're ready and prepared to do all of that. MARGARET BRENNAN: To that point, you saw what Columbia University did this week in paying the $200 million fine to settle their dispute with the Trump administration, they also agreed to an outside monitor to assure the school complies with stamping out diversity programs. Does this precedent trouble you? I mean- would you take a deal like that? CARTER: Well, I can't speak to those institutions because I'm not leading them. I know both President Shipman and some of the other Ivy League presidents are colleagues, and they're having to do I think what I would call be in survival mode. Quite frankly, we're not going through any of that here at Ohio State, and nor do I think that we will. I mean, obviously we have a new state law. We're a public institution, so that means we're going to be transparent and put out everything that we do so the state of Ohio, the people and the entire country can see it. MARGARET BRENNAN: We will watch to see what happens. Good luck to you, sir. We'll be right back.

Iran's Africa activities pose 'significant threats to US national security'
Iran's Africa activities pose 'significant threats to US national security'

Fox News

timean hour ago

  • Fox News

Iran's Africa activities pose 'significant threats to US national security'

The State Department and the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee have joined a chorus of analysts this week in warning Fox News Digital of "significant threats to U.S. national security" from the actions of Iran in Africa. Tehran is accused of reportedly buying uranium in Niger, supplying drones in violation of a U.N. arms embargo to forces in Sudan and promoting the growth of destabilizing Islamist fundamentalism and terrorism on the continent. "Iran's long arm of terror stretches around the globe, including in Africa", Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Sen. Jim Risch, R-Idaho, told Fox News Digital, adding, "Iran is an enemy to freedom everywhere, and a threat to U.S. national security; our partners in Africa must proceed with caution before engaging with this dangerous, authoritarian regime." Reports surfaced initially last year from first the French media outlet Africa Intelligence, and then the Washington-based NGO the Institute for Science and International Security, that the West African nation of Niger had been negotiating the sale to Tehran of $56 million worth of so-called yellow cake – uranium oxide. The 300 tons of uranium, some of which, one source suggests, has been partly delivered already, would allegedly be enough to make 30 nuclear weapons. Analysts say Niger could be preparing to sell even more 'yellow cake' to Iran. Uranium in the country has up until recently been mined by mostly French companies, such as Orano. But Niger's military leaders, who came to power in a coup in 2023, announced that they will revoke mining licenses and nationalize mining operations. Iran is said to want to strike a deal to start uranium mining itself in Niger, particularly around Imouraren, an area where the ground is estimated to contain 200,000 tons of the metal. In a move seen to be towards Russia and Iran, Niger ended an agreement with the Biden administration last year, which led to the closing of two U.S. military bases in the country that were used for anti-terror operations. "In Niger, French outlets covering the continent have reported that there is a secret agreement between Iran and Niger trading uranium oxide for either drones or energy," Behnam Ben Taleblu told Fox News Digital. Taleblu, senior Director of the Iran Program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) added, "The Islamic Republic is an opportunistic actor, both in the Middle East and further abroad." A State Department spokesperson confirmed to Fox News Digital that Iran's activities in Africa are on their radar, saying, "On Niger, we are monitoring the possibility of an Iranian acquisition of uranium. We would have serious concerns about Niger, or any country, transferring uranium to Iran." The spokesperson continued, "Iran's continued development of its nuclear program, (and its) role as the leading state sponsor of terrorism, and destabilizing regional behavior, pose significant threats to U.S. national security and to global stability. "The President has been clear: Iran cannot ever have a nuclear weapon." Iran, said to be interested in Sudan's gold, has been supplying Mohajer-6 drones to Khartoum's government, according to the U.S. Africa Command's Africa Defense Forum. They were used effectively by Sudan in recently reclaiming the capital city, Khartoum and the Presidential Palace. The FDD's Taleblu added, "Iranian drones are active on four continents today, one of which is the African continent, particularly when looking at the conflicts in Sudan and Ethiopia." The State Department spokesperson weighed in "On Sudan, we are aware of reports. Both the RSF and the SAF have used weapons acquired from foreign actors against the civilian population and infrastructure and have committed human rights violations and abuses. "Supplying arms to any of the belligerents prolongs the conflict and heightens the risk of further destabilization in Sudan and the region. The United States calls for an end to all external support to the warring parties, and urges all our partners to press for a comprehensive cessation of hostilities, and increased, unhindered humanitarian access," the spokesperson concluded. Then there is Iran's reported psychological warfare against Africa's communities. "Iran's core Africa strategy is to export its ideology into those communities as a counter-balance to what it sees as anti-Iranian efforts in the Middle East," Frans Cronje, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Yorktown Foundation for Freedom and a former head of the South African Institute of Race Relations told Fox News Digital. Cronje continued, "Africa has 1.5 billion people. Approximately a third of those are Muslim and make up a quarter of all Muslims worldwide, more than the number in the Middle East. Muslims serve as dominant groups across much of North Africa and down the African east coast." "The Iranian Africa strategy can be thought of as having three components," Cronje stated. "The first is the provision of training and material support to extremist groups in Africa to aid in the export of terror globally, and to target Christians and pro-Western communities on the continent, whilst creating a high-threat environment for Western investors. "To that end the global terror threat index scores for several African countries have come to exceed those of traditional Middle Eastern terror staples. Africa's Christians face increasing volumes of horrific attacks, including Christian church burnings and beheadings, and it has become common for Africa to account for the bulk of global terror-related deaths annually. "The second is to identify both Shia and Sunni communities that can be radicalized against the West as well as against Iranian opponents in the Arab world. Iran has employed Al-Mustafa academic and cultural centers in over 30 African countries to train clerics and religious leaders. "A third pillar of the strategy is that Iran has deepened diplomatic and economic cooperation ties with scores of African governments and business organizations to win trade and investment deals that help it evade global sanctions, as well as securing the diplomatic support of African governments on global fora such as the U.N., for measures ranging from its nuclear weapons program to its investment in proxy forces that threaten Israel. "For example," Cronje concluded, "just a few months ago, over 700 delegates from nearly 40 African countries attended an investment conference in Tehran." Summing up, the FDD's Taleblu said "the threat the Islamic Republic poses on the African continent is both significant and diverse. From seeking to export its revolution through religious indoctrination via state-linked religious seminaries, to drone sales, the world's foremost state sponsor of terrorism has not missed this opportunity to cause chaos while flying below the radar of the West."

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