South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on Tuesday recalled his recent, chaotic sit-down with Donald Trump in the Oval Office, making light of an extraordinary moment in which the U.S. president promoted baseless conspiracy theories about his country’s treatment of white farmers.
As soon as Ramaphosa was about to begin speaking at the Sustainable Infrastructure Development Symposium in Cape Town, the lights were dimmed, echoing a now-viral part of his meeting with Trump.
“When I came in, I saw the room going a bit dark,” he said. “They darkened the room. And for a moment I wondered, ‘What is this! It’s happening to me again!’”
While their White House meeting last week started on a good note with Trump saying it was a “great honor” to host Ramaphosa in Washington, shortly after, the U.S. president baselessly accused his guest of not doing enough to stop “white genocide” in his country.
About 20 minutes into the sit-down, Trump ordered his staff to turn the lights down in the room to play a video allegedly showing the families of white farmers displaying crosses to honor their dead loved ones. However, the video, which was filmed in September 2020, did not depict gravesites but was taken from a protest following the deaths of two farmers on their property, according to Reuters.
Ramaphosa recalled the moment Tuesday, trying to make light of the situation he was confronted with.
“At that point I was seated very nicely. I was beginning to get into a groove of interacting with this man, and I suddenly hear him say, ‘dim the lights,’” he said. “A number of people have said, ‘This was an ambush, this was an ambush.’ I was bemused. I was saying, ‘What’s happening?’”
Besides the video, Trump also held up printouts of articles he claimed depicted the mass killings of white South Africans.
“These are all white farmers that are being buried,” Trump said pointing to a picture that wasn’t even taken in South Africa, according to the Agence-France Presse.
Earlier this month, Trump welcomed 59 white Afrikaners to the U.S. as refugees, claiming they were being persecuted in their home country. Ramaphosa has disputed the allegations. Trump cited the debunked claims as the main reason for making major cuts to U.S. aid for South Africa in March.