“People are leaving South Africa due to safety concerns,” Trump declared during the meeting, at one point lowering the lights in the Oval Office to play a contentious video of a communist politician singing an anti-apartheid song that references killing farmers. 

“Their land is being confiscated and in many cases they’re being killed.”

Ramaphosa refuted Trump’s assertions, aiming to correct misunderstandings and improve the relationship between South Africa and the US.

The bilateral relationship is at its lowest point since South Africa enforced its apartheid system of racial segregation, which ended in 1994.

“We are completely opposed to that,” Ramaphosa said of the behavior alleged by Trump in their exchange. 

According to experts in South Africa, there is no proof that white individuals are specifically targeted, though farmers of all ethnicities are subject to violent attacks in a nation plagued by high crime rates.