Two weeks before South Africa hosts the powerful G20 Leaders’ Summit in Johannesburg, US President Donald Trump now says he won’t send any US officials or leaders to the event.
Trump has said for several months that he will not attend, but there were expectations that his deputy, JD Vance, and other officials would still come. But his attacks on South Africa continued on Friday, when he yet again raised misleading claims that white Afrikaners ‘are being killed and slaughtered’ in the country.
The move is likely to impact the summit agenda, despite leaders from some of the world’s largest and influential economies – including the likes of Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, South Korea, and the UK – still expected to attend.
It is unclear how SA will now hand over the hosting of the next G20 Summit to the US at the end of the Johannesburg event. SA has held the 2025 G20 Presidency following the last G20 Summit in Brazil, and it is the first time it will host the G20 Summit.
Escalating tensions
Trump has confirmed the 2026 G20 Summit will take place in Miami, Florida, which is one of his strongholds. With Trump escalating tensions with SA, it is possible he may now bar SA from attending the next summit in the US, depending on where relations stand in a year’s time.
In a post on his ‘Truth Social’ platform, Trump said: “It is a total disgrace that the G20 will be held in South Africa”.
He reiterated claims that Afrikaners are targeted in SA.
“Afrikaners [People who are descended from Dutch settlers, and also French and German immigrants] are being killed and slaughtered, and their land and farms are being illegally confiscated,” he claimed.
“No U.S. Government Official will attend as long as these Human Rights abuses continue,” declared Trump.
Worth noting is that none of the other G20 nations have raised the issue of a “white genocide” in SA, and the South African government has flatly denied the claims.
While the Netherlands is not a permanent member of the G20, it is represented through the European Union, which is a full member.
The SA Department of International Relations and Cooperation (Dirco) called Trump’s post “regrettable,” adding that the claim that Afrikaners face “persecution is not substantiated by fact.”
Dirco said in a statement that South Africa’s “own journey from racial and ethnic division to democracy” makes it “uniquely positioned to champion within the G20 a future of genuine solidarity.”
Trump in September announced he personally would not be attending the G20 Summit of world leaders in Johannesburg, but that Vice President Vance would be going instead.
Following the US president’s social media post, a person familiar with the vice president’s plans confirmed to Bloomberg that he does not plan to attend the 22-23 November gathering.
