Former US President Donald Trump has announced he will skip the upcoming G20 summit in Johannesburg and declared that South Africa should be removed from the group of the world’s largest economies, citing the African nation’s strong pro-Palestine position against Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.
Trump made the declaration Thursday while addressing the American Business Forum in Miami, expressing outrage over South Africa’s decision to file suit against Israel at the International Court of Justice regarding the Gaza conflict.
“South Africa shouldn’t even be in the G’s anymore, because what’s happened there is bad,” Trump stated. “I’m not going … I’m not going to represent our country there. It shouldn’t be there.”
This marks the second time Trump has threatened to boycott the G20 meeting over South Africa’s foreign policy stance. In April, he questioned how the US could participate “when land confiscation and genocide are the primary topics of conversation.”
The diplomatic rift extends beyond the G20 dispute. During a May 2025 Oval Office meeting, Trump confronted South African President Cyril Ramaphosa with allegations of “white genocide” and land seizures from white farmers – claims that multiple analyses have described as baseless and lacking credible evidence.
Ramaphosa firmly rejected the accusations, stating that “that is not government policy” and emphasizing that violence in South Africa affects all citizens equally as criminal activity rather than representing a targeted campaign.
The tension has already manifested in policy changes, with Trump suspending US aid to South Africa earlier this year and extending refugee protections to white South African farmers.
Meanwhile, President Ramaphosa continues to prepare for the November 22-23 G20 summit, stating that the gathering aims to “foster a more stable, a more effective and resilient international financial architecture” while addressing global wealth inequality.
South Africa’s ICJ case against Israel, launched in 2024, presented evidence of what it characterized as Israeli leaders’ “special intent to commit genocide” during the aggression on Gaza that has resulted in approximately 69,000 Palestinian deaths, including 20,000 children, since October 2023.
Source: Agencies (edited and translated by Al-Manar English Website)
