Original Version: 6/2/2025
Last Updated: 6/2/2025
Have you seen the 5/21/2025 video of Trump in the Oval Office claiming to South African President Ramaphosa that thousands of white South African farmers are being massacred in a government sanctioned genocide?
The truth is that:
Details:
It's NOT a recent video of the grave markers of thousands of dead white South African farmers as he claimeed.
It's hundreds (NOT thousands) of symbolic markers (NO bodies buried there) from 5 YEARS AGO in 2020 when TWO (NOT thousands) white South African farmers were murdered by 2 men who broke into their house, robbed it, couldn't get into their safe, and waited for them to come home so they could try to force them to open the safe.
NOT a genocide, just 2 people murdered during an ordinary crime.
NOT government sanctioned. The murderers were arrested, tried, convicted and are still in prison with life sentences.
NOT recent. The markers were a temporary memorial, 5 years ago, for the 2 dead farmers, and were taken down shortly thereafter. They are NOT still there.
It does NOT show body bags of white farmers murdered in South Africa as he claimed.
It's a photo from Jan 2025 in the Republic of Congo (NOT South Africa) showing body bags of over 100 female prison inmates who were raped and burned alive by thousands of male prison inmates during a massive prison break.
NOT in South Africa.
NOT farmers.
Most likely mostly NOT white, since they were 100+ women in prison for various crimes in a country that's only 7.3% white.
NOT a genocide, just a violent prison break.
NOT government sanctioned by South Africa. The murderers were all rounded up by police in the Republic of Congo, returned to prison, and are being charged with new crimes.
Not only were Trump's comments about the video and the the photo completely false. The larger claim that he tried to use them to prove is also completely false.
In South Africa, less than 1% of all murder victims are white, and only 0.3% are farmers.
There is simply NOT any genocide of white South African farmers.
Trump knew all of this.
He's been making the same false claims about South Africa since 2018, and has been proven false many times.
So, it wasn't just that someone gave him bad evidence and he believed it. He knowingly lied. Ambushed the South African President with things that were totally untrue, and evidence that he knew to be false.
No wonder Ramaphosa was perplexed, asking "Have they told you where that is, Mr. President? I'd like to know where that is, because this I've never seen."
He came prepared to be attacked by Trump like Zelensky was, and to be goaded, but to maintain his composure and keep calm. And he succeeded in that. But he had no way to know exactly what lies Trump would spring on him.
Therefore, he couldn't say flat out that they were lies. He just said it was news to him and he would look into it, which made it look as though Trump's lies were true.
If he'd known what was coming, he could have looked into the video and the photo in advance. Found out what they really were, and been prepared to refute Trump's lies with the facts.
But he didn't know anything about the photo that Trump got from a different country. Or the video of a memorial service for 2 murder victims 5 years ago. So he couldn't explain on the fly what they actually were.
As a seasoned diplomat from a country that could use some help from the US, he chose to not call Trump a liar, or even state outright that Trump was misinformed, until he was sure.
So Trump got away with it. Unless people now go to the effort to bring the truth to light.
I'm doing my part. You can help by sharing this on social media and otherwise spreading the word. Hopefully, the truth will set us free (from Trump and his dishonorable minions).
See the Snopes article for details:
--Fred