Trump orders US gov’t officials not to attend G20 Summit in South Africa

U.S. President Donald Trump has announced that no American government officials will attend the upcoming G20 Leaders’ Summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, citing alleged human rights abuses against Afrikaners.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Friday, Trump described the decision to host the G20 in South Africa as “a total disgrace,” claiming that white farmers were being “killed and slaughtered” and their lands “illegally confiscated.”

He added that the U.S. would boycott the summit “as long as these human rights abuses continue,” while expressing optimism about hosting the 2026 G20 Summit in Miami, Florida.

Trump’s comments have drawn strong condemnation from South Africa’s ruling African National Congress (ANC), which dismissed the claims as “false, inflammatory, and racially charged.”

“The African National Congress condemns in the strongest possible terms the false, inflammatory, and racially charged remarks made by U.S. President Donald Trump about South Africa,” the party said in a statement.

The ANC accused Trump of deliberately distorting the country’s reality for political purposes. “His unfounded claims of ‘genocide’ and ‘persecution’ of white South Africans, together with his boycott of the upcoming G20 Leaders’ Summit in Johannesburg, are part of a long and disgraceful pattern of imperial arrogance and disinformation,” the statement added.

The South African government also rejected Trump’s assertions, emphasizing that the nation remains committed to human rights, democracy, and the rule of law.

Officials described the U.S. president’s remarks as an “unwarranted attack” on the country’s sovereignty and multilateral diplomacy.

Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio backed the president’s stance, claiming that “Afrikaners have been continuously subjected to violent racial discrimination by the South African government.” Rubio wrote on X, “I applaud @POTUS’s decision to not waste taxpayer dollars sending our diplomats to the G20 while this heinous violence continues.”

The G20 Summit, scheduled to take place in Johannesburg later this month, will bring together leaders from the world’s largest economies to discuss global trade, climate, and development priorities. Trump’s decision marks a rare U.S. boycott of the influential forum.