US President Donald Trump says he will not attend the upcoming G20 summit in Johannesburg and that South Africa should no longer be part of the group of the world’s largest economies following the African country’s staunch pro-Palestine stance against the Israeli genocide in the besieged Gaza Strip.
Trump made the announcement while speaking to the American Business Forum in Miami as he expressed anger that South African officials had filed suit against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over the occupying regime’s genocidal war against Palestinians in Gaza.
“South Africa shouldn’t even be in the G’s anymore, because what’s happened there is bad,” Trump said. “I’m not going … I’m not going to represent our country there. It shouldn’t be there.”
The US president had also in April voiced his intention to skip the G20 meeting in Johannesburg over South Africa’s anti-Israel move.
“How could we be expected to go to South Africa for the very important G20 meeting when land confiscation and genocide are the primary topics of conversation?” Trump said at the time.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced earlier in the year that he would boycott the G20 summit in Johannesburg, with South Africa signaling that it would not bow to pressure from Washington.
As the primary forum for international economic cooperation, the G20 comprises 19 countries, the African Union, and the European Union, with representatives from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank.
The next G20 Summit is planned for November 22-23 in the South African city.
South Africa launched the case in the same year that the Israeli regime brought the coastal sliver under full-on war, charging that the brutal military onslaught violated the Genocide Convention.
In November 2024, South Africa presented the Hague-based court with evidence of Israeli leaders’ “special intent to commit genocide.”
Since Israel launched its genocidal campaign on Gaza on October 7, 2023, approximately 69,000 Palestinians, including 20,000 children, have been killed and over 170,000 wounded.
Even after the ceasefire between the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas and the regime, casualties continue to rise as more bodies are recovered from the rubble.
Experts warn the true death toll could reach hundreds of thousands once those missing or buried beneath Gaza’s ruins are accounted for.
On May 21, 2025, Trump hosted South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in the Oval Office, where he confronted Ramaphosa with video clips and newspaper clippings alleging a “white genocide” in South Africa.
Trump claimed that white farmers were having their land seized and being killed, asserting the South African government was complicit.
Ramaphosa strongly rejected these allegations, stating that “that is not government policy” and emphasizing the violence in South Africa is criminal and affects all citizens, not a targeted campaign against whites. PBS+1
Analyses from multiple outlets described Trump’s accusations as “baseless” and noted there was no credible evidence of a racially-targeted campaign against white farmers in South Africa.
The meeting underscored a diplomatic rift: Trump had earlier in February suspended US aid to South Africa and extended US refugee protections to white South African farmers, citing alleged persecution.
On Thursday, President Ramaphosa said the upcoming G20 Leaders’ Summit is expected to take concrete steps to reform the global financial system while addressing the deepening divide of global wealth and income inequality.
Speaking during a question-and-answer session in the National Assembly in Cape Town, Ramaphosa said South Africa’s G20 presidency aims to “foster a more stable, a more effective and resilient international financial architecture.”
[ SOURCE: AL JAZEERA and NEWS AGENCIES ]
