Trump announces South Africa won’t join 2026 G20 summit
RNE Network.
U.S. President Donald Trump announced that South Africa will not be invited to participate in next year’s G20 summit in Florida, following Washington’s boycott of the leaders’ summit in Johannesburg last week, which South Africa described as a “punitive” measure.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s office called President Trump’s statement “regrettable.” Ramaphosa noted that, since the U.S. delegation was absent from last week’s summit, “instruments of the G20 Presidency were duly handed over to a U.S. Embassy official at the Headquarters of South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation.”
Since taking office for a second term in January, President Trump has been critical of South Africa’s domestic and foreign policies. He has repeatedly alleged that South Africa’s Black-majority government persecutes its white minority and claimed there was a genocide of white farmers—claims that have been widely discredited. In a White House meeting in May, Trump confronted South Africa’s leader with false claims of white genocide.
On Wednesday, President Trump said his administration would “stop all payments and subsidies” to South Africa, effective immediately. In February, he signed an executive order cutting financial assistance to South Africa, citing disapproval of its land policy and its genocide case at the International Court of Justice against Washington’s ally, Israel.
