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South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said he was “troubled” with President Trump at the White House earlier this month, laughing as some were described as a confrontational moment of ambush.
During Ramaphosa’s visit to the Oval Office, Trump once called for the dimming of the lights so he could play a video that he used to support claims of genocide against white South Africans.
“When I came in, I saw the room a little dark. They made the room dark. For a moment, I wondered, what is this? Is this happening to me again?” According to the SABC video footage, Ramaphosa clearly refers to dim lights at the Sustainable Infrastructure Development Symposium in Cape Town. This sentence aroused the audience’s laughter.
“Because at that moment, we sat very well and I started to fall into the groove of interacting with this guy,” he continued, without mentioning Trump directly. “And then I suddenly heard him say, ‘No, dim the lights.'”
He joked, “I have to say, many people said ‘This is an ambush, this is an ambush.’ I was confused.
Ramaphosa’s meeting with the president is seen as an attempt to save a fragile relationship between South Africa and the United States, as the Trump administration accuses the black-led South African government of being racist against its white citizens.
Trump faces Cape Town leaders in an otherwise cordial encounter, saying without any basis about the mass murder of white farmers. Ramaphosa, a close colleague of former leader Nelson Mandela, stepped back from a U.S. president’s claim that the country had “crimes” but pointed out that most of the victims of crime in South Africa are black.
The nervous Ramaphosa-Trump moment comes months after the Oval Office clashes with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
In the ongoing Russian war against Kiev, Zelensky is expected to sign an agreement that will give the United States access to Ukraine’s critical mineral supply – but Trump canceled talks after the decentralization of the meeting, believing Zelensky is “not ready for peace.” However, the deal will eventually be signed later.
The White House frozen aid to South Africa earlier this year, and later provided a quick citizenship for white Africa Dutch despite wider government crackdown on immigration.
South Africa plans to host a 20 (G20) gathering in the world’s largest economy later this year, but the conflict raises questions about whether Trump can boycott the incident.