US President Donald Trump has announced he will not attend the upcoming G20 summit in Johannesburg, saying South Africa no longer deserves a place in the group of major economies.
Speaking at the American Business Forum in Miami on Wednesday, Trump said, “South Africa shouldn’t even be in the G’s anymore, because what’s happened there is bad.” He added that he would not represent the United States at the meeting, set for November 22–23. Vice President J.D. Vance will attend instead.
Trump has been a vocal critic of South Africa’s land reform policies, accusing the government of targeting white farmers and committing what he called “massive human rights violations.” Earlier this year, he signed an executive order to cut US aid to South Africa and to support the resettlement of white Afrikaners in the United States, describing them as victims of “unjust racial discrimination.”
Pretoria has rejected the allegations, calling Trump’s statements “factually incorrect” and based on a distorted view of the country’s policies.
