Trump Pulls U.S. Out of G20 Summit in South Africa, Citing Disputed Claims of Human Rights Abuses

Nov 2025 : President Donald Trump has announced that no U.S. government officials will attend the upcoming G20 summit in South Africa, escalating tensions between Washington and Pretoria and reviving discredited claims about the treatment of white Afrikaners in the country.

Trump had earlier said that Vice President JD Vance would represent the United States at the meeting later this month. However, in a post on his Truth Social platform, the president reversed course, declaring a total boycott. “It is a total disgrace that the G20 will be held in South Africa,” Trump wrote. “No U.S. Government Official will attend as long as these human rights abuses continue.”

The president again alleged that Afrikaners—descendants of early European settlers—were being “killed and slaughtered” and that their land was being illegally seized. His assertions contradict widely available data and have been repeatedly dismissed by South African authorities and international human rights organizations.

Trump also said he looked forward to hosting the 2026 G20 summit in the United States, which he plans to hold at his own golf resort in Miami, a decision that has drawn criticism and raised concerns about conflicts of interest.

Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has taken an unusually confrontational stance toward South Africa. Earlier this year, he played a video for President Cyril Ramaphosa during an Oval Office meeting, accusing the post-apartheid government of targeting white farmers—a claim South Africa strongly denies.

The diplomatic strain has widened in recent months. The Trump administration announced plans to slash the annual U.S. refugee cap to a historic low of 7,500 and said priority would be given to white South Africans. Pretoria condemned the move, calling it discriminatory.

The two countries have also clashed internationally, particularly over South Africa’s genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice. The United States has criticized the lawsuit, while South Africa has defended it as a matter of principle and international law.

Adding further pressure, Trump has imposed tariffs of 30 percent on South African imports—the steepest applied to any sub-Saharan African nation.

With the G20 summit approaching, the U.S. withdrawal marks a significant diplomatic rupture and highlights the deepening friction between Washington and Pretoria as global leaders prepare to gather without representation from the world’s largest economy.