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Int'l Business Times
21-05-2025
- Business
- Int'l Business Times
S.Africa's Ramaphosa Woos Trump, Musk After Tensions
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa will seek to reset ties with Donald Trump and Elon Musk Wednesday after Washington's unfounded claims of "genocide" against white Afrikaners sent relations plunging. Ramaphosa is bringing two of South Africa's top golfers, Ernie Els and Retief Goosen, and its richest man Johann Rupert, to the Oval Office in a bid to woo the golf-loving US president. The White House confirmed South African-born tech tycoon Musk, Trump's top advisor, would also attend the meeting. The support of the three high-profile Afrikaners in Ramaphosa's delegation comes days after around 50 Afrikaners arrived in the United States to take up Trump's offer of "refuge." Trump made the offer despite the United States having halted arrivals of asylum seekers from most of the rest of the world as he cracks down on migration. Musk, the world's richest man, has been a leading proponent of "white genocide" allegations that Pretoria strongly denies, and Trump has also taken up the claims. The South African president is also expected to come bearing gifts, with reports that his government will offer Musk a deal to operate his Starlink satellite internet network in the country. The Tesla and Space X boss has accused Pretoria of "openly racist" laws, a reference to post-apartheid black empowerment policies seen as a hurdle to the licensing of Starlink. Ramaphosa's office said he hoped to "reset the relationship" with South Africa's second largest trading partner. But he will also stress to Trump that conspiracies of a "white genocide" are "patently false," his spokesman Vincent Magwenya said. Trump's administration has torn into a series of policies in South Africa since the US president began his second term in office. It has slammed South Africa's case accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza at the International Court of Justice, cut foreign aid, announced 31 percent tariffs, and expelled Pretoria's ambassador after he criticized Trump's Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement. But the biggest issue for Trump and his team has been a South African land expropriation law signed in January that aims to redress the historical inequalities of white minority rule. Trump has bought into an unfounded assertion boosted by billionaire Musk that white farmers are being targeted in the country for murder. "It's a genocide that's taking place that you people don't want to write about," Trump told reporters on the day the 50 white South Africans arrived. "White farmers are being brutally killed and their land is being confiscated in South Africa." Musk, who leads Trump's cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), lashed out at the land laws in a video appearance at the Qatar Economic forum on Tuesday. "Why are there racist laws in South Africa?" he said. Land ownership is a contentious issue in South Africa, with most farmland still owned by white people despite being only 7.3 percent of the population. Ramaphosa has rejected Washington's assertion that the law will be used to arbitrarily confiscate white-owned land. Some right-wing Afrikaner lobby groups have claimed that Afrikaans farmers are being murdered in targeted killings, but authorities say this is unfounded. Most of the victims of South Africa's sky-high murder rate are young black men in urban areas, according to police figures.
Business Insider
20-05-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
Elon Musk says he'll do a 'lot less' political spending in the future
Elon Musk said his era of enormous political spending is over — at least for the time being. The world's richest man said during a video interview at the Qatar Economic forum that he thinks he's "done enough" when it comes to political contributions. "In terms of political spending, I'm going to do a lot less in the future," Musk said. He didn't directly answer when asked if he was making the change because of blowback. "Well, if I see a reason to do political spending in the future, I will do it," Musk said in response. "I do not currently see a reason." He's previously said that his super PAC planned to spend on the 2026 midterms. NEW: Elon Musk says he's cutting back on political spending in the future. 'I think I've done enough.' 'I don't currently see a reason.' — bryan metzger (@metzgov) May 20, 2025 Musk spent at least $277 million backing President Donald Trump and the GOP during the 2024 election, making him the single biggest donor of the cycle. He's become a prominent political figure as the face of the White House DOGE Office, though he's said stepping back from his government work to focus more on Tesla. In the months since Trump took office, Musk has become something of a political liability. His popularity has sunk, according to recent polling. His super PAC spent at least $15.5 million on a Wisconsin Supreme Court race, only to have his preferred candidate lose. Tesla has also faced significant political reactions, with a widespread Tesla Takedown movement leading to protests and vandalism across the country. In Tuesday's interview, Musk said that he has taken all that's happened with Tesla recently — falling shares compared to last year, the public backlash — personally. He did not answer, though, whether it made him regret his political involvement, instead bemoaning that "massive violence was committed against my companies, massive violence was threatened against me."
