Trump vows US boycott of G20 over farmer abuses
WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump announced that the United States will boycott the upcoming G20 summit in South Africa, citing what he described as the country’s mistreatment of white farmers, particularly the Afrikaner community.
In a fiery post on Truth Social on November 7, Trump called it a “total disgrace” that this year’s G20 meeting is being hosted in South Africa. He declared that **no U.S.
Trump’s decision comes after days of speculation about his attendance. Earlier this week, he had already confirmed that he would not personally attend the G20. At the time, Vice President JD Vance was expected to represent the United States at the high-profile gathering of the world’s leading economies. However, Trump’s latest statement makes clear that the boycott will be total, marking an unprecedented diplomatic move by Washington toward a key member of the BRICS bloc.
In his post, Trump repeated long-standing claims that white South African farmers—many of them descendants of Dutch settlers known as Afrikaners—are being targeted through violence and land confiscation under South Africa’s land reform policies. “They are being killed and slaughtered, and their land and farms are being illegally taken,” he wrote, describing the situation as a “tragedy the world is ignoring.”
The South African government, led by President Cyril Ramaphosa, has strongly denied Trump’s allegations, calling them “baseless and inflammatory.” Officials have argued that the government’s land redistribution efforts aim to correct the deep racial and economic inequalities left by apartheid, not to persecute any particular group.
The boycott adds another layer of tension between Washington and Pretoria, already strained by disagreements over South Africa’s close ties with Russia and its neutral stance on the Ukraine war. South African officials have not yet formally responded to Trump’s announcement, but diplomatic experts warn the move could further isolate the United States from African partners at a time when China and Russia are expanding their influence on the continent.
Trump’s pledge to host the next U.S.-based G20 summit in Miami in 2026 also carried a defiant undertone. “We’ll make it the best G20 ever,” he wrote, signaling that his administration plans to use the event to showcase American leadership on its own terms.
As the Johannesburg summit approaches, Trump’s boycott has sparked debate among analysts and lawmakers alike—some calling it a principled stand on human rights, others labeling it a politically charged move likely to deepen global divisions.