Trump Recognized South Africa Is Not Our Friend

 

On this episode of The Daily Signal's “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words,” Hanson unpacks the South African president's Oval Office meeting with President Trump.

"This is not the South Africa we used to know. It was running on the fumes of Mandelaism. At the United Nations, it's hostile to the United States. It takes advantage of the free trade agreement to run up a $9 billion surplus," Hanson said. "It gets $500 million in aid and it shows no gratitude. It attacks us."

"I don’t think Donald Trump will visit South Africa. But I guarantee you, Mr. Ramaphosa will want another meeting."

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON, THE DAILY SIGNAL: We've had another so-called "ambush" on the White House. Remember, ambush means "an unexpected attack from a secretive place." This was not an ambush. Mr. Cyril Ramaphosa, the President of South Africa, wanted that meeting with Donald Trump. He requested it.

And when he came in, he was prepared to refute Donald Trump. In fact, if you look at the media before the meeting, they didn't use the word "ambush," they were giddy. They thought, "Wow, he's going to give Trump a bill of goods." What they didn’t expect was that Trump was ready with his own bill of goods.

Here’s the real backstory: Why did Ramaphosa want to meet Trump? Because he had a free trade agreement with the U.S. with no tariffs on South African agriculture, metals, everything. He was running a $9 billion surplus, and in addition to that, he was getting $500 million in foreign aid from the United States.

In addition to that, his ambassador had just been fired or expelled by Marco Rubio. Why? Because he made a video calling Donald Trump a white supremacist and part of a white victimhood movement, just before the visit. Was he embarrassed? No. He received a hero’s welcome when he went back.

And then there's the larger context of South Africa. It usually votes against the United States at the United Nations. It signed on to the International Criminal Court’s move to arrest Benjamin Netanyahu as a war criminal.

We had a video of the leader of the third-largest party in South Africa telling a crowd to "kill the boer, kill the farmer." And in 2022, something called the "South African Equity Court" declared that "kill the boer, kill the farmer" is not hate speech. I don't know what hate speech is in South Africa if "kill a designated minority" doesn’t qualify.

Looking at all of this, Donald Trump got sick of it. He said, "We don’t hate South Africa, but they’re not our friends. This is not Nelson Mandela. It’s not the age of reconciliation. It’s not the South Africa with such promise 30 years ago. This is a racialist state. It’s one of the most violent countries in the world. And it’s anti-Western and anti-American."

So when Mr. Ramaphosa came to set Donald Trump straight, Trump said: "You know what? I don’t think you like us, so I’m not going to give you $500 million in foreign aid."

"You know what? I don’t think you like us because you think I’m a white supremacist, so we’re not going to give you free trade into our markets. We’re going to charge a 30% tariff."

"You know what? Your ambassador and all your people come over here, and you don’t like us. You think the left-wing foundations, media, and universities are running the country. They’re not. So when you come over here and call us racists, maybe you shouldn’t come over here. Have a little peace."

"Maybe all your foreign students, your green card holders, your visitor visas, maybe we should have a little cooling-off period."

So Donald Trump was saying: this is not the South Africa we used to know. It was running on the fumes of Mandelaism. It’s hostile to the United States at the UN. It takes advantage of the free trade to run up a $9 billion surplus, it gets $500 million in aid and shows no gratitude. It attacks us.

And then when we try to say that you have a law appropriating land without compensation, you deny it, but that was the whole purpose of it. No compensation. You could say it’s for the public domain, but everybody knows how that works. Every country that confiscates land does it for the public, but they compensate you -- except South Africa.

You want internet like Ukraine has, or like remote regions of Asia and Africa have, and therefore you want Starlink. You think Elon Musk is a native son, so you invite him in. But then you say: “We’ll give you the priveledge to come into our market," as if Elon Musk needs that, "but we’re going to take a third of your company and your franchise in South Africa, and it has to be partnered with people of a particular color, Black people.” And Elon Musk responds: “I think I’ll pass on that nice invitation.” And then they get angry and now they'll probably try to ban him.

I don’t think Donald Trump will visit South Africa. But I guarantee you, Mr. Ramaphosa will want another meeting, like Mr. Zelensky did. He’ll come in and say: "Please take away the 30% tariff. Please give us the $500 million handout in foreign aid. Please let all the South Africans — not just the 48 white people -- who, by the way, he called cowards for not wanting to play the lottery with their lives, let it all come back in. Please, please, please. And we promise they won’t let people pack stadiums and chant “kill the boer, kill the farmer” and say that’s not hate speech."

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2025/05/29/victor_davis_hanson_trump_recognized_south_africa_is_not_our_friend.html