Trump to skip G20 summit in South Africa, V-P Vance to attend in his stead

Skylar Woodhouse and Josh Wingrove

  President Donald Trump said he would not attend this year’s Group of 20 leaders’ summit in Johannesburg in November, after months of attacks on South Africa’s government over unfounded claims it’s carrying out a genocide on White Afrikaners. 

Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Friday that Vice President JD Vance would represent the US instead. 

“He looks forward to it, but no, I won’t be going,” Trump said. 

Doubts had persisted about whether Trump would participate in the summit. Secretary of State Marco Rubio suggested in May that Trump would not join the meeting, accusing South Africa of being “consistently unaligned” with US policy.  

The president’s fight with South Africa reached a boiling point in May when he ambushed President Cyril Ramaphosa with a video purporting to back up his claims White farmers are being targeted.  

The incident derailed Ramaphosa’s visit to Washington, which was intended to mend ties with the US and persuade Trump to stop floating the conspiracy theory about an campaign against White South Africans.  

Ramaphosa after the meeting sought to put a positive spin on the ordeal, expressing confidence that he would see the US president at the gathering of leaders representing the world’s largest economies. Trump on Friday annouced his plans to hold next year’s G-20 summit as his Doral resort in south Florida. 

The president has seldom turned down a spot on the world stage. Trump attended each of the first three G-20 summits during his first term, with the fourth being held virtually during the Covid-19 pandemic. He has used the forums to hold talks with China’s Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin, as well as Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.  

Trump’s attacks on South Africa date back to shortly after his second inauguration. In February, Trump signed an executive order halting assistance over what he falsely claimed were rights violations stemming from a new land-expropriation law. 

The US has given South Africa more than $8 billion in bilateral aid over the past two decades. 

Tensions between Washington and Pretoria have been ongoing following South Africa’s refusal to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and for its case in the International Court of Justice alleging Israel’s war in Gaza is a genocide against Palestinians.  

Trump’s administration has offered refugee status to White Afrikaners, a group that it claims is persecuted under Black ownership and employment-equity laws intended to address racial inequities stemming from decades of apartheid rule.