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Trump to meet leader of ‘out of control’ South Africa at White House
JOHANNESBURG — President Donald Trump is scheduled to meet South African President Cyril Ramaphosa at the White House on Wednesday for a make-or-break session, despite new accusations from the president this past Friday that South Africa is «out of control» and committing genocide.
Speaking on Air Force One as it returned from the Persian Gulf region, Trump repeated his claim that White Afrikaner South African farmers are being slaughtered and forced off their land. The Afrikaners are descendants of mostly Dutch settlers who first arrived in South Africa in 1652.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio elaborated on these claims Sunday on CBS, saying «all evidence [indicates] the farmers in South Africa are being treated brutally.»
Some 50 Afrikaners were flown to the U.S. as refugees last week. Rubio said there’s «more to come». South Africa, and its president, denies claims of genocide and harassment.
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Afrikaner refugees from South Africa arrive on Monday at Dulles International Airport in Dulles, Va. On Monday, the Episcopal Church said its Migration Ministries services will refuse a government directive to help resettle White South Africans who have been granted refugee status in the United States. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)
Could the Oval Office and the Wednesday meeting be the setting for a Zelenskyy-style dressing down of the South African president? In February, Ukraine’s president was involved in a shouting match with Trump and others, which reportedly led to him being ejected from the White House.
«The meeting is set to occur at a time when the relationship between the two countries has soured to unprecedented lows,» analyst Frans Cronje, Yorktown Foundation for Freedom advisory board member, told Fox News Digital.
Contentious issues:
- South Africa’s ambassador to Washington was thrown out of the U.S. for calling Trump a «White supremacist.»
- South Africa took legal action against U.S. ally Israel, accusing it of genocide in its war in Gaza, at the International Court of Justice.
- Ramaphosa’s ruling party, the ANC, has shown support for the terror group Hamas.
- Trade and military links with Iran and allegedly nuclear co-operation.
- Shown support for the designated terrorist group Hezbollah.
- Military links with Russia.
- The creation of the controversial Land Expropriation Act, which is aimed at seizing land the government wants in certain circumstances without compensation and which reportedly led to Trump’s focus on White Afrikaner families and claims they are being killed.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, left, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin (ALEXANDER ZEMLIANICHENKO/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
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South Africa is «hosting Hamas and Hezbollah, doing business with Iran’s IRGC, prosecuting Israel at the ICJ and cozying up to Beijing and Moscow. These choices have consequences,» Max Meizlish, senior research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital.
Meizlish said South Africa has «attracted the ire of the president and key members of Congress, who play significant roles in shaping the future of U.S.-South African relations. Unfortunately, President Ramaphosa and his colleagues in the ANC do not appear to fully appreciate this fact. President Trump should insist on meaningful change and be ready to back his demands up with tools like targeted sanctions and tariffs.»
But will the White House meeting be icy, feisty, even loud? Not from the South African side, former U.S. diplomat and Daily Maverick Associate Editor J. Brooks Spector told Fox News Digital. «Ramaphosa has a long track record of careful negotiating with adversaries.»
A man brandishes a replica toy gun during a pro-Palestinian demonstration organized by the South African opposition party Economic Freedom Fighters in front of the Israeli Embassy in Pretoria on Oct. 23, 2023. (Marco Longari/AFP via Getty Images)
He doesn’t raise his voice, even when others become heated. This reporter has seen this first hand. In a smoke-filled room in 1990 in South Africa’s dusty Free State, I watched Ramaphosa, then a leader of a Black miners’ union, sometimes even smile as he quietly and successfully calmed down [the] often-shouting White miners accused of killing Black colleagues underground and got the murders stopped.
Spector continued, «It is almost certain Ramaphosa and his team have closely studied the way three recent prior meetings with Trump have gone – those with Zelenskyy (Ukraine), Starmer (the United Kingdom) and Carney (Canada) – in an effort to draw lessons about how to present their best face. He will not make neophyte negotiation mistakes.»
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South African Embassy officials Vusimuzi Madonsela, seated right, and Cornelius Scholtz, seated second left, talk at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, on May 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)
Cronje told Fox News Digital that Ramaphosa and his country badly need the U.S.
«At home, Mr Ramaphosa is presiding over economic stagnation, with South Africa facing a rate of economic growth estimated at just over 1% together with an unemployment rate of over 30%. Mr. Ramaphosa will, therefore, be under great pressure to secure a deal.»
Some 600 U.S. companies operate in South Africa. Ramaphosa has taken four top ministers to Washington hoping to offer new deals, especially reportedly on natural gas, minerals and agricultural product sales to the U.S., and possibly finally the licensing of Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite internet system in South Africa.
Cronje noted a military perspective the U.S. will also want to consider: «South Africa commands the southern sea route between the Indian and Atlantic oceans, which is an important trade and naval choke point.»
Meizlish added that South Africa «holds vast mineral wealth and could anchor U.S. investment in Africa, but that doesn’t mean we should turn a blind eye to its alignment with America’s enemies.»
President Donald Trump listens to a question during an event at the Oval Office on May 19, 2025. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
South Africa’s chief rabbi, Dr. Warren Goldstein, told Fox News Digital that South Africa could «easily withdraw» its ICJ case against Israel if it wanted to, adding that «opinion polls show that there is very little domestic support for his (Ramaphosa’s) anti-Israel stance, with most holding positive views towards Israel, sharing the same conservative Christian values that deeply resonate with Mr. Trump’s support base in the U.S.»
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Meizlish said, «This visit can’t be about optics or deals that fail to address the root of South Africa’s malign foreign policy. Trump needs to push Ramaphosa to make substantive, structural reforms in his country’s foreign policy while also creating pathways for greater U.S. investment. It can’t just be one or the other.»
As South African politicians swept through Washington on Tuesday on a major lobbying exercise, trying to get traction on the idea of focusing on trade, Rubio told senators during a hearing that a reset in relations might be possible.
«If there’s a willingness on their side to reset relations, obviously [that’s] something we’ll explore, but we do so with eyes wide open to what they’ve done so far,» he said.
Fox News Digital reached out to the South African government for comment but received no response.
INTERNACIONAL
El golpe fulminante de EE.UU. e Israel para matar al líder supremo de Irán, Ali Khamenei
INTERNACIONAL
Jeb Bush commends former rival Trump’s Iran operation: ‘This is their time to take their country back’
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FIRST ON FOX: A major public policy nonprofit co-led by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush praised President Donald Trump for ordering Saturday’s military strikes against Iran.
United Against a Nuclear Iran (UANI) — was formed in 2008 by Ambassador Mark Wallace, who held a United Nations-centered post in Bush’s brother’s administration, and former George H.W. Bush diplomat Dennis Ross — to combat threats posed by the Islamic Republic.
The group has been on the front lines of highlighting Iran’s human rights abuses and attacks on Americans and advising policymakers and the business community about dangers posed by Tehran.
The organization counsels existing and would-be commercial partners of Iran regarding the legal, financial and reputational risks of that kind of commerce.
«UANI salutes the courage and professionalism of American and Israeli service members carrying out this historic mission against the Iranian regime,» Bush and Wallace told Fox News Digital Saturday.
Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump, left, and Jeb Bush take part in a presidential debate at the Reagan Library Sept. 16, 2015, in Simi Valley, Calif. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
«We applaud President Trump for his courageous decision to launch this military operation. For 47 years, the Iranian regime has unleashed terror, violence and misery — against its own people and across the region — while threatening the United States, Israel and our allies.»
Bush, who ran against Trump in a bruising 2016 primary, and Wallace noted that many presidents tried to bring Iran into the «peaceful community of nations» but were not able to finish the job.
«This president engaged extensively and in good faith to achieve a diplomatic solution,» they said after Trump indicated as recently as last week he wanted to negotiate terms.
«The regime chose escalation and continued its pursuit of nuclear weapons. The responsibility for this moment rests squarely with Ayatollah Khamenei.»
Khamenei, 86, was declared dead by Israeli sources by late afternoon.
Bush and Wallace added it was clear the joint American-Israeli operation was directed not at Iran, the country and citizenry, but at Khamenei’s «lethal capabilities.»
The Iranian people, they said, have long suffered under repression and that Trump’s message since the strikes began is one that should be embraced by all Americans: «We aim to see Iran free, prosperous, and at peace. This is their time to take their great country back.»
«The Butcher of Tehran is dead,» Bush and Wallace added in a separate public statement.
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Bush added in a statement on X that «Operation Epic Fury marks a historic mission against the Iranian regime.»
«We salute the courage and professionalism of American and Israeli service members and commend for his courageous decision,» he added.
Bush’s relationship with Trump has appeared to warm since their bitter feuds of a decade ago.
During the 2016 sweeps, Trump nicknamed the Republican Party scion «Low Energy Jeb,» while Bush quipped that the mogul would not be able to «insult your way to the presidency» after the eventual victor mocked an ad that former first lady Barbara Bush filmed for her son.
While governor, Bush made improving public education a hallmark of his administration in Tallahassee. Bush implemented stricter proficiency standards in elementary education and signed what was dubbed the «A+ plan,» making Florida the first state to require clear letter grades on student performance.
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He recently praised the Trump administration’s overtures toward universal school choice and federal block grants as a «transformational opportunity.»
«The Trump administration has a chance to shift the power dynamic back to the states, where policymakers are uniquely equipped to understand and address the diverse needs of their students, schools, and communities,» he added in a column in Education Week.
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Fox News chief national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin joins ‘America Reports’ to give the latest on the aftermath of the U.S.-Israel strikes on Iran.
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Iran entered a new chapter Saturday after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed, abruptly ending more than three decades of authoritarian rule and setting in motion a leadership transition the regime has long prepared.
A senior Arab diplomat told The Times of Israel that while Khamenei’s demise is a «massive blow» to the Islamic Republic, Tehran anticipated the possibility and took steps to withstand such a scenario.
«Mere survival, at this point, would be considered a victory,» the diplomat said of the regime, according to the outlet, following U.S. and Israeli strikes across the country.
A recent report from the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) outlined three broad trajectories for a post-Khamenei Iran: managed regime continuity, an overt or creeping military takeover, or systemic collapse.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei was killed in an Israeli strike on Saturday. (Office of the Supreme Leader of Iran via Getty Images)
CFR cautioned that even a leadership change at the top would not necessarily translate into meaningful political reform in the near term, given the regime’s deeply institutionalized power structure and its record of using force to maintain control.
The report notes that the real balance of power rests within a tight circle of clerical elites and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
It describes a likely «continuity» scenario as producing «Khamenei-ism without Khamenei,» in which a successor from within the regime preserves the ideological framework of the Islamic Republic while relying on established security institutions to preserve stability.
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«The Islamic Republic’s constitution includes a succession process. The Assembly of Experts, a clerical body, is constitutionally charged with selecting the next supreme leader,» Jason Brodsky, policy director of United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), told Fox News Digital.
«In the interim, should there be a leadership vacancy, an interim leadership council is formed comprised of the president, chief justice, and a member of the Guardian Council selected by the Expediency Council,» he added. «The IRGC is a key stakeholder in this process, and will heavily influence its outcome.»
Over the past three decades, the Bayt-e Rahbari, or the Office of the Supreme Leader, expanded into what a February report by UANI described as a «sprawling parallel state» operating alongside Iran’s formal institutions.
Large crowds gather at Enghelab Square in Tehran, Sunday, after Iranian state TV announced that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in an Israeli strike. (Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu via Getty Images)
The analysis characterizes the Office as the regime’s «hidden nerve center,» extending control across the military, security establishment and major economic foundations in ways that make the system’s authority institutional rather than dependent on Khamenei’s physical presence.
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«The supreme leader today is no longer just one man; he is represented through an all-encompassing institution that consolidates power, manages succession, and guarantees continuity,» the non-partisan policy organization said. «The Islamic Republic’s most enduring strength lies in this hidden architecture of control, which will continue to shape the country’s future long after Khamenei himself departs from the scene.»
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