In a contentious Oval Office meeting on Wednesday, U.S. President Donald Trump presented South African President Cyril Ramaphosa with a misidentified image that he claimed showed white farmers being buried in South Africa — a widely debunked conspiracy theory.
Trump held up a printed screenshot from a Reuters video taken in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, during a deadly attack by Rwanda-backed M23 rebels. Despite clear evidence that the image depicts humanitarian workers handling body bags in Congo, Trump told Ramaphosa, “These are all white farmers that are being buried,” using the photo to suggest a coordinated campaign of violence against white South Africans.
The image originates from a February 3 Reuters report filmed by journalist Djaffar Al Katanty. “President Trump used my footage from Congo to mislead another world leader about events in a different country,” Al Katanty said. “This image has nothing to do with South Africa.”
The photo was lifted from a blog post on the conservative website American Thinker, which failed to label the image correctly. Though the blog linked to the original Reuters footage, it presented the image within a context alleging a so-called “white genocide” in South Africa — a conspiracy theory that international rights groups and the South African government have repeatedly dismissed as false.
Andrea Widburg, managing editor of American Thinker, acknowledged the image was misidentified but defended the article’s core message, which criticizes the South African government’s land reform policies and alleges anti-white discrimination.
Trump, visibly agitated during the televised portion of his meeting with Ramaphosa, flipped through printed articles and blog posts, repeating sensational phrases like “death, death, death,” in an attempt to validate his claims. He offered no credible sourcing for the material.
The incident has drawn sharp criticism from journalists, analysts, and international observers. President Ramaphosa, who had hoped the meeting would reset U.S.–South Africa relations amid tensions over land reform and racial equity policies, did not publicly respond to Trump’s remarks.
The White House declined to comment.
Reuters has since reaffirmed that the footage Trump used was unrelated to South Africa, confirming its origin in eastern Congo and rejecting any connection to white farmers or political violence in South Africa.
This is not the first time Trump has invoked the white farmer conspiracy theory. In 2018, he ordered the U.S. State Department to “closely study” land seizures and the “large-scale killing of farmers” in South Africa — a claim South African officials denounced as baseless and inflammatory.
Analysts warn that Trump’s repetition of these falsehoods risks inflaming racial tensions and undermines legitimate diplomatic engagement.
“This is how misinformation becomes international incident,” one U.S. diplomat said privately. “And it couldn’t come at a worse time.”
