WASHINGTON – South African President Cyril Ramaphosa brought two championship golfers from his country and a 14-kilogram book showcasing South Africa's greatest golf courses.
But even his best attempts to appeal to President Donald Trump's golf fandom couldn't shield him from becoming the latest target of an Oval Office ambush.
In a wild one-hour May 21 meeting between Trump and Ramaphosa ‒ rivaled only by Trump's memorable clash with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in February ‒ Trump accused the South African leader of overseeing "genocide" against White people, played a video to try to prove the false claim and lashed out at a reporter who asked about his administration accepting a $400 million jet from Qatar.
"I'm sorry I don't have a plane to give you," Ramaphosa quipped after things got heated, about 20 minutes into the meeting.
"I wish you did. I'd take it," Trump said. "If your country offered the U.S. Air Force a plane, I would take it."
The backdrop to the hostility was the Trump administration's recent decision to welcome White South Africans, known as Afrikaners, as refugees to the United States, at a time when Trump has halted the resettlement of other refugees, who are typically people of color.
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