How Trump's Oval Office became a danger zone for world leaders
The entrance to the Oval Office doesn't have a 'caution' sign hanging overhead, but if two recent meetings with foreign leaders are indication, it might need one.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky each found themselves on the receiving end of presidential tirades during their respective visits to Washington.
And as Axios reports, that's making foreign leaders think twice about making a trip that's traditionally been seen as a chance to earn goodwill with the Most Powerful Person on Earth and street cred with the voters back home.
Ramaphosa came to Washington on Wednesday looking for a reset in relations between the U.S. and his nation.
Trump, acting at the urging of tech billionaire Elon Musk, who'd pushed disputed claims of 'white genocide," cut off aid to South Africa, sent the country's ambassador packing, and put white Afrikaners on the fast track for refugee status, Axios reported.
Likely with Zelensky in mind, Ramaphosa brought South African golfing legends Ernie Els and Retief Goosen along with him to meet the famously golf-mad president and act as a buffer.
The meeting began with a lighter mood, and Trump warmly greeted Ramaphosa outside the North Portico before they moved into the Oval Office, The Washington Post reported.
Read More: Trump's meeting with South African president spirals into false claims
That worked — until it didn't.
Trump hinted at potential problems ahead. 'He is a man who is certainly, in some circles, really respected. Other circles, a little bit less respected. Like all of us, in all fairness,' he said, making clear that the meeting was coming at Ramaphosa's request, according to The Post.
Things took a turn about 20 minutes into the session, when Trump asked for the lights to be dimmed so he could show Ramaphosa a five-minute compilation video involving incitement against whites by extremist politicians whom Ramaphosa opposes, Axios reported.
The video included footage of crosses and earthen mounds that he said represented more than 1,000 grave sites of murdered farmers, The Post reported.
The mounds were, in fact, part of a protest against the violence, not actual graves.
Ramaphosa stared straight ahead, wiping his face and occasionally moving in his seat and looking over at Trump, who wouldn't make eye contact as a clip played of crowds repeatedly shouting 'Kill the Boers,' a reference to White farmers descended from colonists who built and led the nation's racist apartheid regime, according to The Post.
Trump then flipped through a stack of news printouts describing such attacks.
The meeting continued for 30 more minutes. And unlike Zelensky, Ramaphosa wasn't bounced from the Oval Office.
It's important to pause here and note that other world leaders, including Canadian Premier Mark Carney have held their own during visits to Trump's White House, Axios reported.
But the online news org noted, these public embarrassment sessions are starting to look like a trend.
The bottom line, according to Axios? If you're a world leader and get an Oval Office invite, 'enter at your own risk.'
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Read the original article on MassLive.
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