‘Always grifting’: Donald Trump humiliated after using photo from wrong country in South African ‘genocide’ claim

Donald Trump‘s meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa was always going to be tense. MAGA’s Grima Wormtongue (aka Elon Musk) has been whispering in Trump’s ear for months about the ridiculous “white genocide” conspiracy theory and has apparently convinced the president that white farmers are being killed en masse in South Africa.

This isn’t happening, though these days, objective reality isn’t much of a priority in the White House. As such, Ramaphosa had to sit there while Trump ordered the lights dimmed and played a bonkers conspiracy video to him while regurgitating whatever racist poison Musk has poured into his ears.

The low point came when Trump brandished a photograph he claims proves that this “genocide” is taking place. This was supposed to be a checkmate moment for Trump and his team. But, oopsie, the image was from a YouTube video showing Red Cross workers responding to a mass rape and murder in the Democratic Republic of Congo, about a country 2000 miles to the north of South Africa.

“Look, here’s burial sites all over the place. These are all white farmers that are being buried,” Donald Trump said during today’s meeting with South Africa’s president.

The image he was holding up, however, is from the Democratic Republic of Congo.https://t.co/YddTtT9lwJ

— Bill McCarthy (@billdmccarthy) May 21, 2025

A swing and a miss!

Fortunately, Ramaphosa had been well-briefed on what to expect from Trump, particularly after the notorious Zelenskyy meeting earlier this year. As such, he kept his cool, and calmly pointed out that “There is criminality in our country. People who do get killed, unfortunately, through criminal activity, are not only white people — the majority of them are Black people.”

Ramaphosa went on to deliver a masterclass in measured statesmanship, designed to contrast with Trump’s rambling inanities. His spokesman went to casually dismiss the incident as “an orchestrated show for the cameras”, trying to keep the situation focused on, y’know, things that don’t just exist in the mind of bigoted South African tech billionaires: “President Ramaphosa came here not for a TV show, he came here to discuss with President Trump in earnest how we can reset the strategic relationship between South Africa and the US”.

As the dust was settling Ramaphosa simply pretended this embarrassing moment didn’t happen, saying “it went very well” and focusing on Trump’s visit to the G20 summit in Johannesburg in November, saying ““I want to hand over the presidency of the G20 to President Trump in November, and I said he needs to be there. I don’t want to hand over the presidency of the G20 to an empty chair.”

And, for anyone taking notes, that’s how you deal with Trump. Don’t rise to his bait, ignore the dumb stuff, and focus on what you want. After all, he’s a sponge for compliments and praise, so simply continue applying butter until he forgets whatever ludicrous conspiracy has put a bee in his bonnet, and he’ll calm down sooner or later. Or, to put it more simply, just treat the president like a two-year-old having a tantrum. He’ll settle down soon enough.

Maybe if Trump wants to stop a genocide from taking place, he should focus on one that’s actually happening.