Countries. You've just heard what has been said to you just now. Are you coming and are you preparing to come? So without the United States, the G20, just like the G7 used to be the G8, but brilliantly they threw Russia out. Would have been a lot better if Russia was in. You know, a lot of people would say, 'Oh, that's not because if Russia was in, you probably wouldn't have this war. And if you had a different president, you wouldn't have the war either.' But we have a G7. It's important that the United States is in both of them. I think without the United States, it's not very important. It's not the same meaning.
As I said to President Trump, the US really originated the G20 and it's important that the United States continues to play a key role in the G20. And we are privileged to be the president of the G20, but we are even overjoyed that we are going to hand over to the United States who are the originators. And for that reason, I expect the United States to continue playing the leadership role in the G20 together with other countries. And I've said when I initially spoke to President Trump on the phone, I want him to come to South Africa for a state visit and I also want him to come and participate in the G20. And I want to gladly hand over to President Trump to take the leadership of the G20 forward in November. Thank you very much.
They don't want to leave. They like you so much. Everybody, please keep moving. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Golf is still doing great in South Africa and they have young players I hear coming up that are going to be very good. But it's an honor to have you here and my friend, it's an honor to have you. One of the greatest businessmen in South Africa and long beyond. Thank you for being here. It's a very great honor. Appreciate it. So we're going to be discussing certain things. As you know, the G20 is going to South Africa. When is that going to be? In November. And thereafter, I hand over to you. And yes, we have it next year. You originated the G20. So, I'll hand over the baton to you and then you lead the G20. We're going to have it the following year. So, we'll be discussing many things and some of the things you've been reading about in the papers. The media. And I would say that look, the president is a truly respected man in many circles and in some circles he's considered a little controversial. But we're going to be discussing some of the things that are taking place in South Africa and see if we can help. And we want to help and we've had a long relationship with South Africa. I have because indirectly I have so many friends that live there. I have a lot of friends. I mean these famous guys, but I have a lot of friends that live there that are tremendous people and we'll be discussing that. We'll have a nice conversation and I really appreciate that you guys came along. It really helps us in our thought process. But it is a great honor to have you and I appreciate you called. He called, I don't know where he got my number but I picked up. He said I want to come over and see you and that was my honor and thank you very much for being here. You're most welcome.
Well, thank you very much for welcoming us to this reformed White House. I've been here before and it looks really fantastic. I must congratulate you. But I also thank you for allowing our delegation. This is a very mixed delegation that you've got. We've got people from government, my ministers. I've got someone from the trade union movement who you really collaborate with and from business as well and our sporting legends. When I spoke to you, you said yes, come along and bring Gary Player, bring anyone else. I brought the two of them. Gary Player, no, I spoke to him and he said, 'Look, I'm getting rather on in my years, but wishes us luck in this discussion with you.' So, it's a real joy and I'd also like to thank you for allowing your people to start discussions with us at the trade level. I mean, we are essentially here to reset the relationship between the United States and South Africa. We are long-standing partners in many ways. We've collaborated in many fields in space issues, in energy and in trade and we therefore need to reset that particularly in the light of some of the announcements that you made on trade and investment. So we want to advance more trade between the two of us, your two countries and our people now have been empowered by yourself and by myself to start engaging and we hope that we will be able to fuel that engagement during our talks. And we also want to discuss issues that have to do with how we promote further investments in both countries. We've got about 22 companies from South Africa that have invested in the US that's creating a number of jobs and similarly you've got almost 600 companies that have invested in South Africa and some of them have been in South Africa for more than a hundred years. So our links are really long-lasting and we would like to recalibrate those relations between our two countries and discuss a whole range of issues, geopolitical, the work that you're doing to bring peace around the world in Ukraine and in the Middle East. So we value that and we are also a great contributor to peace processes that are going on around the world. And of course we want to discuss how we can support each other. You are a much bigger economy than we are. We're just a tiny economy. But we rely on each other on a number of issues. We've got critical minerals that you want to fuel the growth of your own economy and re-industrialize. So we have that on offer including rare earth minerals. So all that combination of opportunity and the products that we buy from you as well as what we sell to you I believe makes up a really good and powerful relationship which we need to strengthen, which we need to engender and that is really what has brought us here. And we are really privileged to have great South Africans in the mix as you said you'd like to see them as well. And I brought you a really fantastic golf book, weighs 14 kg. And it showcases the golf courses in our country. Johan Rupert wrote the preface so did Gary Player. And I want to showcase our golf courses. You might remember when I spoke to you and we spoke about golf, you said I should start practicing and I've started practicing, President. So I'm ready. But let me end just the introductory remarks by thanking you. You may not recall that five years ago I spoke to you during the COVID period, right? And it was at a time when the whole world was going through a really cathartic moment, right? And we asked for assistance and you were able to assist us with respirators. And you kept to your word and you delivered respirators to us. We didn't have as many in our country and it really helped to help us deal with COVID. So I'm here also to say thank you and to thank the people of America for having helped us during a really difficult time being the small economy that we are. We needed help from around the world and you were there to provide that. So thank you very much.
I remember the call. We said 150 respirators. We became the respirator king. We started making them. Nobody had them. We had very few of them. But they were very helpful. But we sent 150. And I appreciated the letter. You wrote me a letter. That's right. Thank you very much. Thank you very much for that. It really touched my heart after I spoke to you and you delivered. Great honor. Thank you very much. Thank you.
Any questions, please, Mr. President.
You welcome white African refugees here. Can you explain to Americans why it's appropriate to welcome white Afrikaners here when other refugees like Afghans, Venezuelans, Haitians have all had their protective status revoked?
Well, this is a group NBC that is truly fake news. They ask a lot of questions in a very pointed way. They're not questions, their statements. We've had tremendous complaints about Africa, about other countries too, from people. They say there's a lot of bad things going on in Africa. And that's what we're going to be discussing today. When you say we don't take others, all you have to do is take a look at the southern border. We let 21 million people come through our border totally unchecked, totally unvetted. They came from all over the world. In many cases, they're criminals. They come from prisons. They come from mental institutions. They come from street gangs. They're drug dealers. So don't say that we didn't take them. We're taking them. We're trying to get them out as fast as we can. And we're doing record business on that. And we just won a big case. We're allowed to send back hundreds of criminals to Venezuela. Just won that today in the Supreme Court. But we do have a lot of people are very concerned with regard to South Africa and that's really the purpose of the meeting and we'll see how that turns out. But we have many people that feel they're being persecuted and they're coming to the United States. So we take from many locations if we feel there's persecution or genocide going on. And we had a lot of people.
I must tell you, Mr. President, we have had a tremendous number of people, especially since they've seen this. Generally they're white farmers and they're fleeing South Africa and it's a very sad thing to see. But I hope we can have an explanation of that because I know you don't want that. And it's a kind of a different meeting. Normally we have meetings we talk about trade and we'll be talking about trade and other things but that certainly will be a subject that comes up.
Please, thank you very much. I'd like to get your thoughts on Letitia James. According to him, Letitia James says that the alleged mortgage fraud was simply a mistake. Want to get your thoughts on that. She put down that her father was her husband in the word. And this is very similar to I guess the false accounts they have on here.
Well, I don't know what it is currently, but Letitia James, who's the attorney general of New York State, it seemed I'm not involved in that at all. I know it's being handled by various groups, I guess, but it's major fraud, mortgage documents and fraudulent everything. I think she said the father was her husband, which she had to have a husband or so she chose her father and she put it down. And she signed in Virginia yet she said she lived in Virginia yet she's the New York state attorney general and she did that for tax reasons so she could take advantage of taxes and she had the wrong number of units. She had a much different number which wouldn't have allowed her to qualify and scam the government. So I don't know, I think she's very bad for New York but I really don't know too much about it but I appreciate the question. Thank you very much.
To be convinced that there's no genocide. Thank you, Mr. President. So May 25th will be the celebration of Africa Day, which pretty much a lot of celebration will be taking place around the world, including here in the United States. What is your message to the entire African continent, African people in this important location?
Well, I want to see peace and I want to see happiness. I want to see health and you know, you have incredible land. It's tremendous value. A lot of countries don't have that value in the land. The value you have, you know, we have a situation, I think you probably heard about it. We've done through some very talented people helped settle a war that's been raging for years, Rwanda and the Congo. And I think we've done it. Believe it or not, I think we've done it. And could you just say a few words about that, my friend?
Yes. A couple of weeks ago, they signed the declaration of principle in which they've agreed on the way forward and they have both submitted draft peace agreements and we have put together one that incorporates both of their suggestions and we've given it to them. So we're in the process of finalizing, looking very good. No, we have to thank you for even those efforts because the African continent, particularly SADC, our Southern African Development Community, has for years been seeking to foster peace in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. So all efforts including those from outside the continent and inside the continent are really worthwhile. We are removing our troops from there so that peace can then prevail in that whole area and we hope that with the support of the international community we will really have peace in that area. It's so vital, so important for the whole region.
Well, we sent our people there and I think we did a very good job. I sent it by my friend and that was great. That was great. I mean, I'm just hearing phenomenal reports because all I'm hearing is death, death and they're chopping heads off and it's horrible over there. And it was really brave of you to go there and I really appreciate it and it looks like we have something very substantial. We also talked about trade with them in terms of rare earth and all but really more for the... it's like if you take a look at what we just did with Pakistan and India we settled that whole thing and I think I settled it through trade. We're doing a big deal with India. We're doing a big deal with Pakistan and I said what are you guys doing? You know, somebody had to be the last one to shoot. But the shooting was getting worse and worse, bigger and bigger, deeper and deeper into the countries. And we spoke to him and I think we got it settled and then two days later something happens and they say it's Trump's fault. But Pakistan has got some excellent people and a great leader and India is my friend Modi. Modi. And he's a mutual friend. Yeah, he's a great guy. And I called them both and we just did something good. We were trying to settle Russia-Ukraine. You spoke with President Putin for two and a half hours the day before yesterday. I think we made a lot of progress, but that's a bloodbath. 5,000 people are being killed a week. 5,000 soldiers a week, not including people in cities and towns that are also being killed. So, we're trying to help. And it doesn't affect us. It's not our people. It's not our soldiers. It's Ukraine and it's Russia. But if we can save 5,000 souls, we'll do it. You know, we're pretty good at it. But it's a bad situation. That is a really bad situation.
Well, you'd recall when President Zelensky was coming to South Africa, that's when I spoke to you. That's right. We both agreed that we need to push the peace message so that there can be a little bit of peace. And we've been involved in the Ukraine-Russia conflict for quite a while. My minister of state security here, we've been dealing with them in the exchange of children who were taken away, going through names and addresses and all that. So we've been invested in that whole process as well and the moves that you are making are fully supported by us because we would like to see the end of that war.
That's true. I called Zelensky and they said he's in South Africa. I said what the hell is he doing in South Africa? He was talking to us. We got this paper. That's strange. He said what are you doing in South Africa? That's a strange one. He's trying to make peace.
But we were lucky because we had the great Nelson Mandela who taught us how to create peace, to make peace. So we were imparting some of those lessons to him, some of those learnings. And I specifically mentioned to him that this is how Nelson Mandela taught us that when you want to have peace in a country, do it on an unconditional basis and sit down and talk. And that's precisely what I'm sure he's going to hear.
Well, we're going to see what happens with that one. There's a lot of hatred, there's a lot of death. It's a bloodbath. I get the unfortunately I get the satellite pictures of that field of that killing field. You never saw anything like it in your life. It's horrible. It's a horrible thing that it goes on. But I think we've made big progress.
Yeah. Please go ahead. Thank you, Mr. President.
No, no, not you. Right here. He's from South Africa. Go ahead, please.
What are you expecting on the ICJ? Are you expecting South Africa to drop that? Is that what you're trying to... which case? The International Criminal Justice...
I don't expect anything to be honest. I really don't. I don't know. They've got a case, there's a lot of anger there. Tremendous anger. I don't expect anything. We'll see what happens. We'll have a ruling and who knows what the ruling is going to mean.
Yeah. On that subject of Gaza, Mr. President, are you going to be speaking to Prime Minister Netanyahu about Israel's renewed offensive? There's a lot of concern from European countries. The Pope has expressed concern. Are you going to be asking Prime Minister Netanyahu to tone down the offense in Gaza to let more aid in?
Was that a question or a statement? You never change.
President, what does it take from you for you to be convinced that there's no white genocide in South Africa?
Well, I can answer that for the president. It's for him.
No, seriously. I'd rather have him answer.
Yeah, I know the answer. It will be our president will respond to you. Thank you, Mr. President. It will take President Trump listening to the voices of South Africans, some of whom are his good friends, like those who are here. When we have talks between us on the quiet around a quiet table, it will take President Trump to listen to them. I'm not going to be repeating what I've been saying. I would say if there was Afrikaner farmer genocide, I can bet you these three gentlemen would not be here, including my minister of agriculture. He would not be with me. So it'll take him, President Trump listening to their stories, to their perspective. That is the answer to your question.
But Mr. President, I must say we have... No, no, wait. We have thousands of stories talking about it and we have documentaries, we have news stories on that. Is Natalie here? Somebody here to turn that I could show you a couple of things and I would... I just I have to, it has to be responded to. Sure. Let me see the articles please if you would and turn... Excuse me. Turn the lights down. Turn the lights down and just put this on. And it's right behind you.
Johan, there's nothing this parliament can do. With or without you, people are going to occupy land. We require no permission from you, from the president, from no one. We don't care. We can do whatever you want to do. Who are you to tell us whether we can occupy land or not? We are going to occupy land. South Africa occupy land. That's who we are.
Withdraw from this party must never be scared to kill a revolution. Demand that at some point there must be killing because the killing is part of a revolutional act to kill the mother, kill the poor farmer, kill the poor farmer.
The mayor of DA in PE is a white man. So these people when you want to go after a white man they feel a terrible pain because you have touched a white man. Not because mama and will not be touched, they will be touched. No one, but you are standing with this whiteness, you are cutting the throat of whiteness. To kill no man. Kill the brewer. The farmer. The brewer. The farmer. The poor. The farmer. To the poor. The farmer. Burn the farm. Burn the poor.
I don't know what's going to happen in the future. I'm saying to you was not called for the killing of white people at least for now. I can't see the future. But I mean you'd understand something watching that especially gets shared on Twitter, they freak out. It sounds like a motorcycle.
Who will expropriate land without compensation whether they like it or not. If they object they can seek a refugee in America.
Now this is very bad. These are burial sites right here. Burial sites over a thousand of white farmers. And those cars are lined up to pay love on a Sunday morning. Each one of those white things you see is a cross. And there's approximately a thousand of them. They're all white farmers, the family of white farmers. And those cars aren't driving. They're stopped there to pay respects to their family member who was killed. And it's a terrible sight. I've never seen anything like it. Both sides of the road you have crosses. Those people are all killed.
Have they told you where that is, Mr. President?
No. I'd like to know where that is because this I've never seen. But don't... Okay. I mean, it's in South Africa. It's working. We need to find out those people.
Okay, Mr. President, the Pentagon announced that it would be accepting a Qatari jet to be used as Air Force One.
What are you talking about? You know, what are you talking about? You know, you to get out of here. What does this have to do with the Qatari jet? They're giving the United States Air Force a jet. Okay. And it's a great thing. We're talking about a lot of other things. This NBC trying to get off the subject of what you just saw. You are a real, you know, you're a terrible reporter. Number one, you don't have what it takes to be a reporter. You're not smart enough. But for you to go on to a subject about a jet that was given to the United States Air Force, which is a very nice thing, they also gave $5.1 trillion worth of investment. In addition to the jet, go back, you ought to go back to your studio at NBC because Brian Roberts and the people that run that place, they ought to be investigated. They are so terrible the way you run that network and you're a disgrace. No more questions from you. Go ahead. Go ahead. Talk about that. His name is Peter something. He's a terrible reporter.
Quiet. Quiet. My question. Let's go. Thank you so much. President Trump and his in South Africa. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. What would you like President Ramaphosa to do about the situation that we've just seen on the screen?
I don't know. Look, these are articles over the last few days. Death of people. Death. Death. Horrible death. Death. I don't know to pick anyone. White South Africans are fleeing because of the violence and racist laws. And this is all I mean I'll give these to you. So when you say what would I like to do? I don't know what to do. Look at this. White South African couples say that they were attacked violently. And President Trump, what will you go and see for yourself if it isn't? Well, I could do that. Look, here's burial sites all over the place. They're all these are all white farmers that are being buried. And he asks about a jet that was given. You ought to be ashamed of yourself. You know, you're such a bad reporter.
President Trump, Mr. President, this is one after another. This family was wiped out. I'm just looking. Can we get your reaction to those videos, Mr. President?
Well, I think it's... I think the videos are so... No. No, when you look at the videos, I mean, how does it get worse? And these are people that are officials and they're saying that kill the white farmer and take their land. That's what... And I have other friends in South Africa. I have people that left. One in particular that says you can't go there. He said they want to take your land. They take your land and they kill you. It's okay. And they say it's okay to do. Now we're going to talk about it, but this is a tremendous look, this is story recent. These are all people that recently got killed. Yeah. And I don't know how it can get any worse. These are... And you know the man that you saw, the men that you saw, the people that you saw on that movie, those are officials. Those are people that were in office. They had one march. They had a dance in your parliament, whatever you may call it, legislature.
But let me clarify that. Let me clarify that because what you saw, the speeches that were being made, one, that is not government policy. We have a multi-party democracy in South Africa that allows people to express themselves, political parties to adhere to various policies and in many cases or in some cases those policies do not go along with government policy. Our government policy is completely, completely against what he was saying even in the parliament and they are a small minority party which is allowed to exist in terms of our constitution.
But you do allow them to take land. No, no, no, you do allow them to take land. Nobody can take... when they take the land they kill the white farmer and when they kill the white farmer nothing happens to them.
No, there is... nothing happens to them. There is criminality in our country. People who do get killed unfortunately through criminal activity are not only white people. Majority of them are black people. And we have now...
The farmers are not black. I don't say that's good or bad, but the farmers are not black. And the people that are being killed in large numbers and you saw all those grave sites and those are people that loved ones going I guess on a Sunday morning they told me to pay respect to their loved ones that were killed, their heads chopped off, they died violently. And you know, I mean we're here to talk about it and I didn't know we'd get involved here but I will say this that if the news wasn't fake like NBC which is fake news. Totally. One of the worst. ABC, NBC, CBS, horrible. But if they weren't fake news, like this jerk that we have here. If we had real reporters, they'd be covering it. But the fake news in this country doesn't talk about that. They don't want to talk about it. But now they have to talk about it. But they won't. This won't even be a subject. They'll have him talking about why did a country give a free... think of this. Why did a country give an airplane to the United States Air Force? Okay, the United States, not to me, to the United States Air Force so they could help us out because we need an Air Force One until our... that's Air Force One. It's being built. Two of them being built. But Boeing's a little bit late, unfortunately. So why did they give us a plane to the United States Air Force? That's what that idiot talks about after viewing a thing where thousands of people are dead. I'm sorry. I don't have a plane to give you. I would... I wish you did. I take it. I would take it. If your country offered the United States Air Force a plane, I would take it. Okay.
But coming back to this issue, which I really would like us to talk about and talk about it very calmly. We were taught by Nelson Mandela that whenever there are problems, people need to sit down around a table and talk about them. And this is precisely what we would also like to talk about including of course trade matters, investment matters. So the issues that concern you as the United States, those are all recent and those are all deaths. Yeah. In many ways, I mean, one should say you are a partner of South Africa and you are raising concerns and these are concerns that we are willing to talk to you about. Let me just add quickly, you know, the criminality that we are experiencing in our country needs quite a lot of technological capability and in one of our areas in South Africa, we're using US technology which is able to in many ways identify where shootings are happening and all that. And I'd like to talk about that because there is support that we can get from you and the United States to help us deal with all these acts of criminality. And that is what I believe partnership is all about. And we are here as a partner so that we can help each other whenever there are challenges. So I'd like us to discuss it and of course outside of the media so that we sit down and have a really good discussion that will lead to good outcomes.
Are there any other further punitive measures that could be in place should you not be satisfied that South Africa is fixing some of the very bad things that you tweeted are happening?
Well, there are a lot of bad things happening in, you know, many countries, but this in particular has been very, very bad. Very bad. And because of, you know, we're going to have the whole world watching in another short period of time because you have the G20 and that's a big deal. And it seems like I mean, I want you to look good. I don't want you to look bad. Very good. But we have hundreds of people, thousands of people trying to come into our country because they feel they're going to be killed and their land is going to be confiscated. And you do have laws that were passed that gives you the right to confiscate land for no payment. You can take away land for no payment.
I want to clarify that because we have a constitution. Our constitution guarantees and protects the sanctity of tenure of land ownership. And that constitution protects all South Africans with regard to land ownership. However, we do say because we've got to deal with the past, the government and as your government also has the right to expropriate land for public use.
And you're doing that and we've never really gotten underway with that and we are going to be doing that. You're taking people's land away.
And those people in many cases are being executed. They're being executed and they happen to be white and most of them happen to be farmers. And that's a tough situation. I don't know how you explain that. How do you explain that? They're taking people's land away. And in many cases, those people are being executed. And in many cases, it's not the government that's suing, it's people that kill them and then take their land and nothing happens to them. But we have thousands of people that want to come into our country. They're also going to Australia in a smaller number, but we have thousands of people that want to come into our country and they're white farmers and they feel that they're going to die in South Africa and it's a bad thing. Yeah.
G20. What can South Africa do? What concessions would you like to see them make to improve relations with the United States? Then I have one more for President Ramaphosa afterwards.
Well, you know, we just spoke about I got them a very complex machine, 150 of them and I was asked by the president if it could help and I did that. And you know I have great feeling for all countries. I deal with all countries. But I have a great feeling for South Africa because I have friends. I have a couple of friends, a few friends here today. I have many friends from South Africa, but many of those friends are not... they can't go back. I have Elon is from South Africa. I don't want to get Elon involved. That's all I have to do. Get him into another thing. But Elon happens to be from South Africa. This is what Elon wanted. He actually came here on a different subject. Sending rockets to Mars. Okay. He likes that better. He likes that subject better. But Elon is from South Africa and I don't want to talk to him about that. I don't think it's fair to him. That's right. But I will say that people are fleeing South Africa for their own safety. Their land is being confiscated and in many cases they're being killed. And that scene of you see how many crosses they have. Those crosses that's a dead person in every one of them. And those trucks or cars are paying their respects to all of those dead people on a Sunday morning. That's a rough thing to explain away. And the problem we have and the way a correct and a fair media exposes things, but we have a very corrupt media. They won't even report this. If this were the other way around, it would be the biggest story. Now I will say apartheid terrible that was the biggest story that was reported all the time. This is sort of the opposite of apartheid. What's happening now is never reported. Nobody knows about it. All we know is we're being inundated with people with white farmers from South Africa and it's a big problem. Marco Rubio was telling me he's never seen anything like it. The numbers of people that want to leave South Africa because they feel they're going to be dead very soon.
Yes. Brian, go. If I could just ask you a question. 72% of farmers in your country are white. If they flee, do you feel that maybe the economy could collapse? You may not have a gap to fill in those people that need to replace those farmers.
You know, I'd like my Minister of Agriculture, who is white, who comes from an opposition party to mine, who's joined my government and my invitation to address some this very issue, including the question that you've just raised, John.
Thank you very much, Mr. President. Mr. President, thank you for welcoming us to the White House. I would say we have a rural safety problem in South Africa. I don't think anyone wants to candy coat that and it requires a lot of effort to get on top of it. It's going to require more policing resources. It's going to require different strategy to be able to deal with it. But certainly the majority of South Africa's commercial and small holder farmers really do want to stay in South Africa and make it work. And I've just come from the largest agricultural show in the southern hemisphere with organized agriculture and farmers and the majority of them want to stay. But they too there have a memorial to those who've died as a result of farm attacks. And as the Minister of Agriculture, it is something that I'm particularly exercised with my colleagues at police and my colleagues in the justice cluster to stop making farm attacks and stock theft a priority crime and it affects all farmers in South Africa. Particularly stock theft has a disproportionate effect on small holder black farmers. I also want to just say this that the two individuals that are in that video that you've seen are both leaders of opposition minority parties in South Africa. The uMkhonto weSizwe under Mr. Zuma and the Economic Freedom Fighters under Mr. Malema. Now the reason that my party the Democratic Alliance which has been an opposition party for over 30 years chose to join hands with Mr. Ramaphosa's party was precisely to keep those people out of power. We cannot have those people sitting in the union buildings making decisions. And that is why after 30 years of us exchanging barbs across the floor in parliament and trying to get one over on each other, we've decided to join hands precisely to keep that lot out of government because the day they get in to the doors of the union buildings in South Africa or control parliament, that's what you're going to see. And that is why this government working together needs the support of our allies around the world so that we can strengthen our hand, grow our economy and shut the door forever on that rabble getting through the doors of the union buildings because then South Africa's future would be...
So you denounce that type of language in the video that you saw?
Oh yes, we've always done so. As government, as my own party, we are completely opposed to that. We in 1955 adopted a document which said South Africa belongs to all who live in it.
But why wouldn't you arrest that man? That man said, 'Kill the white farmers. Kill the white farmers.' And then he danced and he's dancing, dancing and it's kill the white farmers. I think I'm not sure but I think if somebody got up in parliament and started saying kill a certain group of people he would be arrested very quickly. That man is going all over South Africa and that's not a small party. That was a stadium that holds 100,000 people and I hardly saw an empty seat. That's a lot of people. That's a lot of representation. And those crosses, we have dead white people, dead white farmers mostly. And you take a look at Australia, they're being inundated and we're being inundated with people that want to get out and their farm is valueless. It's valueless and they just want to get out with their life. And this is a very serious situation. And if we had a real news or real press or media, we don't have that because they won't talk about this because they're all guys like that idiot. But if we had a real press, it would be exposed. And you know, the beauty of exposing it is it's like a cleansing action. When it gets exposed, it'll get fixed. That's when it'll get fixed. But people don't talk about it. And I'll tell you who's talking about it, the thousands of people that are fleeing South Africa right now.
We discussed US aid and the devastating impact the cuts are having across the African continent.
You know it's devastating and hopefully a lot of people are going to start spending a lot of money. And I've talked to other nations. We want them to chip in and spend money too. And we've spent a lot and it's a tremendous problem going on in many countries. A lot of problems going on. The United States always gets the request for money. Nobody else helps. As you know, Europe doesn't help. Europe hasn't given anything. All they do is sue our companies. You know, they sue Apple and they sue all of our companies. Apple had to pay 17 billion dollars on a nonsense lawsuit. Very unfair. But we're going to always be there to help.
President Ramaphosa, South African Broadcasting. If this Afrikaner resettlement issue is resolved, we're going to go into a room after this. You guys are going to talk. If it is resolved, what is the potential for the future looking relationships for you?
Fantastic. It's got to be resolved. It should be resolved. It's a little bit bad when you see a stadium with 100,000 people in it because that means it's more than just a little movement. It's a pretty big movement in South Africa. So, it has to be resolved. It'll be the end of the country if it's not.
The potential for the relationship moving forward?
I hope so. That's why I'm here. I mean, I'm not here for my health. I'm here to see what it means. No, I'd like to see I have friends. I can tell you Ernie Els, they feel so strongly they wanted to be here on behalf of South Africa, not on behalf of me. Yes. And you know, they said, 'Can we be here for this?' Because they love the country. Ernie, do you guys want to say a couple of words or anything? I don't... I hate to put you in this. This is tougher than sinking a three-footer.
They've seen me three footers. They have and they've sank many three-footers. Thank you, Mr. President. And thanks for the honor of being here. We've known each other a long time. We have spoken. You know, we're proud South Africans. I still have my South African passport. You know, we travel with this passport, you know, and I got my visa here. So, you know, but we want to see things get better in our home country. That's the bottom line. It's been 35 years since the transition. President Ramaphosa was right in the middle of the transition time in 1990 and before that. So it's been 35 years of ANC government. And I know there's a lot of anger, you know, through the transition. There's always a lot of stuff happening in the apartheid days. You know, we grew up in the apartheid era. But I don't think two wrongs makes a right. You know, President Mandela when he came out of prison for all that time didn't come out with hatred, you know, and really unified our nation with sport, you know, we won the Rugby World Cup in '95, four times. We won the African Nations Cup, our soccer, you know, we won some majors as golfers and so forth. So what I'm trying to say is you know, this has been a long time coming. That's why we really wanted to meet your administration and see our way forward because we still want to see our country flourish. You know we got some great things going on. Business is getting involved with government. Farming, farmers are getting involved in local municipalities trying to rebuild some of the infrastructure that's been decaying for a long time. So there's a lot of co-existence going on and help from a lot of areas but we need, I feel we need the US to push this thing through. We've got a great ally we can have. The US has always been an ally of South Africa for a very long time. Even in the days of the war, you know, up in Angola, you know, you guys helped us. So, very important for us to have your support and you know, get the change we need.
Well, did you do that? Well, he might have done that even better than he plays golf, which is almost impossible.
Johan, please. Sorry, Mr. President. If you had to wind all of those types properly, you will see I'm the biggest target of that rabble-rouser. Number one for over 10 years, Mr. Malema. In fact, the first time I met him, he was in the youth league with that gentleman and look how he's changed, right? We have too many deaths, but it's across the board. It's not only white farmers. It's across the board. And we need technological help. We need Starlink at every little police station. We need drones. I actually got drones donated for the peace parks to stop elephant and rhino poaching and his predecessor stopped the importation because he said the United States would spy on us. I mean, you as basics, the ridicule. So if we can, if you can help us. Remember sir, you and I lived in New York in the 70s. We never thought New York could be what it became. Two commissioners, a tough mayor. We need your help to stop this awful killing. But it's across the board. Ernie is right now building a playhouse in George. I'm building three cottages for my grandchildren on a farm outside Franschhoek. I often go to bed without locking the door. And we have a serious problem with illegal aliens who stream across the border. And if you really look at our statistics, a lot of these murders, firstly it's unemployment and illegal aliens. And then I met Vice President Vance. My wife loved the book, but she reminded me this morning that you emphasized the devastation that occurs when big companies leave towns and cities and there's a culture of dependency that develops. I remember you discussing it now. That's our problem. If we don't get our economy to grow, the culture of dependency and the lawlessness will increase. I've again been against the party all my life and I'm their number one target. Please just Google my name and Malema. You'll see it, sir. Yeah. He marched...
The crime is bad. The crime is terrible, sir. But Mr. Steenhuisen won't admit to it, but he runs the Western Cape where I live. And the biggest murder rate is in the Cape Flats, gangs. We've got gang warfare like your MS-13, what these guys, we've got equivalents there, but we need your help, sir, and we need Elon's technology.
Well, one of the real areas of support is really in investments. We've got to grow our economy because through growing the economy, we're then able to create more jobs because crime really thrives where there is inequality and unemployment. And that is one of the reasons that has brought us here to improve our investment relations, our trade relations, so that we can preserve the number of jobs that your companies have created in South Africa. By virtue of what we export to you, we are able to create up to 500,000 jobs in the auto industry, in the agricultural industry and a number of other industries, mining where we export things to you. And we also know that as South African companies invest here, you are also able to create jobs. So it's a mutually beneficial relationship. So our main real reason for being here is to foster trade and investment so that we are able to grow our economy. Your support and so that we're also able to address all these societal problems because criminality thrives when people are unemployed when they have no other hope to eke out a living. So that is what we need to resolve and your support, your partnership with us is what is really going to give us a strong, strong capability to move forward.
Excuse me. You have anything to say? I mean I don't want to leave you out. You know the guy won three or four majors.
Three or four? No, I need two. Two.
That's a lot. By the way, two is a lot. A lot of tournaments you won, too. Uh you have anything to say?
Yeah, thank you Mr. President, President Ramaphosa. I grew up in an area in South Africa that is a farmland area and there is some issues up there obviously. My dad was a property farmer, got killed. The farm is still going, my brothers run it, but it's a constant battle with farms trying to get, they're trying to burn the farms down to chase you away. So it is a concern to try and make a living as a farmer. And at the end, without farmers, there's no food on the plate. So we need the farmers to produce the food.
He wouldn't do it. He wouldn't even want to do what you're doing, right? They love farming. They don't want to leave. But it's a struggle. Yeah. And you know food and fresh water is the most important thing in life. You know without those two things you can't survive. How is the water there?
The water is great obviously. All the water comes out of the borehole, out of the ground for us down there. But yeah it is a battle to get the water out sometimes when all the equipment gets stolen all the time that you're trying to get.
So does your family and your brother do they feel safe on the farm?
They live behind electric fences, you know, try and be at night safe. But it is constant whenever you leave that something could happen and there's no way to live. You know, both of them has been attacked in their houses. My mom's been attacked in the house when she was 80. So it is difficult. But you know the guys live a great life despite everything going on.
President Trump, I've brought along the president of the largest trade union in our country, Ziggy Solosi, because she leads many, many workers, more than one million, one and a two million workers. And maybe we should give her a chance to say something because she's come all the way to join us.
Thank you very much, Mr. President Trump for having us and President for extending the invitation to us as organized labor. And I must say that we are here to support the initiative that has been made by our government with business. Of course as organized labor we've been coming to Washington on the AGOA trade relations in the previous regime and I think at the center of it all for me it is exactly what Mr. Rupert have said, the importance of us growing the economy. We have always emphasized when we were here and kept on coming and negotiating on AGOA that the 600 US companies that are based in South Africa, as you said President Ramaphosa, 500,000 jobs will be wiped out. We need more foreign direct investment in our country. We are not just talking about those that will lose employment but we are talking about over 40% of people that are unemployed that have no hope of ever finding a job. And we think that correctly as they have said that we need to deal with the issue of porous borders in our country so that everyone that comes in is documented. We also need to, and I would have thought that the minister would address the issue of land expropriation and how the policy works in South Africa. Recently President, as you were preparing to come here, on the news, I think it was on SABC, there was a handover of farms and white farmers were saying we are donating the land but also there's a willing buyer willing seller in South Africa. So there is no expropriation without compensation but it is a willing buyer willing seller and that white farmer was even saying President that the government is even paying more in buying the land than what the land is worth. And I think those are the realities President that we must say that we need to address. Of course but also the importance of agriculture linked to our goal. Yeah, people rely on it and I think as Retief said for survival and living. But lastly for me President is also the issue of the crime statistics. There is no doubt about it that we are a violent nation you know for a number of reasons and we're not condoning anything. But also if you go into the rural areas where black majority are, you would see women, elderly being raped, being killed, being murdered. And these are black elderly women that would be found throat slits, raped multiple times and all of that. And the problem in South Africa, it is not necessarily about race, but it is about crime. And we think that we are here to say how do we both nations work together to reset, to really talk about investment but also help us in how we can have the technology and everything that is needed President to really address the levels of crime that we have in our country. Thank you very much.
Genocide, genocide is a very long word. I'm wondering if you've made up your mind as to whether you believe genocide is occurring in South Africa or you still doubt. And if you have made up your mind, why invite President Ramaphosa here today?
Well, I haven't made up my mind. I hate to see it from the standpoint of South Africa, but also you know I'm trying to save lives. I'm working with Russia and Ukraine. I don't have to do that. It's not our war. It was started by other people. Was helped along by our past administration. It would have never happened if I were president. But I'm trying to save lives no matter where. Rwanda, I have nothing to do with Rwanda and the Congo, but I felt I had a very talented person in this administration and I sent him there and he did an unbelievable job, I think. I mean, we're going to find out, but he's done the hardest part of the job. It should happen. If I can save lives, I want to save the lives. If it's in Africa, that's great. If it's in Europe, if it's wherever it may be. And it's a very small investment to do, believe me, compared to what the consequences are. So I hope we can do something. Look, I have so many friends. These two men, I have great admiration for them because I know what they do for a living. And that's a very hard living. Going from city to city, from country to country, and hitting a ball 350 yards like they do. And better than you and I and getting the ball in the hole. It's a very tough with lots of people watching, right? It's a very tough living and you know they're champions. I respect champions and I respect very much and I think the country is very lucky. They really wanted to be here. That's true. They could be elsewhere. They could be on a beautiful fairway someplace and they wanted to be here.
Glad you brought my name. From Newsroom Africa in South Africa. How important is it for the United States to be at our G20 summit in November given the relationship between our two countries? You've just heard what has been said to you just now. Are you coming and are you preparing to come?
So without the United States, the G20 just like the G7 used to be the G8, but brilliantly they threw Russia out. Would have been a lot better if Russia was in. You know, a lot of people would say, 'Oh, that's not because if Russia was in, you probably wouldn't have this war.' And if you had a different president, you wouldn't have the war either. But we have a G7. It's important that the United States is in both of them. I think without the United States, it's I really believe it's not very important. It's not the same meaning.
As I said to President Trump, the US really originated the G20. Yes. And it's important that the United States continues to play a key role in the G20 and we are privileged to be the president of the G20 but we are even overjoyed that we are going to hand over to the United States who are the originators and for that reason I expect the United States to continue playing the leadership role in the G20 together with other countries. And I've said when I initially spoke to President Trump on the phone, I want him to come to South Africa for a state visit and I also want him to come and participate in the G20 and I want to gladly hand over to President Trump to take the leadership of the G20 forward in November. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much. Thank you. What is it going to take to convince you? I don't want to leave.
Everybody keep moving. Thank you. Keep moving.
Golf is still doing great in South Africa and they have young players I hear coming up that are going to be very good. But it's an honor to have you here and my friend, it's an honor to have you. One of the greatest businessmen in South Africa and long beyond. Thank you for being here. It's a very, very great honor. Appreciate it. So, we're going to be discussing certain things. As you know, we have the G20 is going to South Africa. When is that going to be? In November. In November. And thereafter, I hand over to you. And yes, we have it next. You originated the G20. So I'll hand over the baton to you and then you lead the G20. We're going to have it. We're going to have it the following year. Yeah. So we'll be discussing many things and some of the things you've been reading about in the papers. Yes. The media and I would say that look the president is a truly respected man in many, many circles and in some circles he's considered a little controversial but we're going to be discussing some of the things that are taking place in South Africa and see if we can help and we want to help and we've had a long relationship with South Africa. I have because indirectly I have so many friends that live there. I have a lot of friends. I mean, these are famous guys, but I have a lot of friends that live there that are tremendous people and we'll be discussing that. We'll have a nice conversation and I really appreciate that you guys came along. It really helps us in our thought process. But it is a great honor to have you and I appreciate you called you. He called I don't know where he got my number, but I picked up. He said, 'I want to come over and see you.'
That was my honor and thank you very much for being here. You're most welcome. Well, thank you very much for welcoming us to this reformed White House. I've been here before and it looks really fantastic. I must congratulate you. Thank you. But I also thank you for allowing our delegation. This is a very mixed delegation that you've got. We've got people from government, my ministers. I've got someone from the trade union movement who we really collaborate with and from business as well and our sporting legends. When I spoke to you, you said yes, come along and bring Gary Player, bring Ernie Els and Retief. I brought the two of them. Gary Player, now I spoke to him and he said look I'm getting rather on in my years but wishes us luck in this discussion with you. So it's a real joy and I'd also like to thank you for allowing your people to start discussions with us at the trade level. I mean we are essentially here to reset the relationship between the United States and South Africa. We are long-standing partners in many, many ways. We've collaborated in many fields in space issues in energy and in trade and we therefore need to reset that particularly in the light of some of the announcements that you made on trade and investment. So we want to advance more trade between the two of us, your two countries and our people now have been empowered by yourself and by myself to start engaging and we hope that we will be able to fuel that engagement during our talks. And we also want to discuss issues that have to do with how we promote further investments in both countries. We've got about 22 companies from South Africa that have invested in the US that's creating a number of jobs and similarly you've got almost 600 companies that have invested in South Africa and some of them have been in South Africa for more than a hundred years. That's true. So our links are really long-lasting and we would like to recalibrate those relations between our two countries and discuss a whole range of issues, geopolitical, the work that you're doing to bring peace around the world in Ukraine and in the Middle East. So we value that and we are also a great contributor to peace processes that are going on around the world and of course we want to discuss how we can support each other. You are a much bigger economy than we are. We are just a tiny economy but we rely on each other on a number of issues. We've got critical minerals that you want to fuel the growth of your own economy and re-industrialize. So we have that on offer including rare earth minerals. So all that combination of opportunity and the products that we buy from you as well as what we sell to you I believe makes up a really good and powerful relationship which we need to strengthen, which we need to engender and that is really what has brought us here and we are really privileged to have great South Africans in the mix as you said you'd like to see them as well. Brought you a really fantastic golf book, weighs 14 kg. Oh, that sounds good. And it showcases the golf courses in our country. Johan Rupert wrote a preface so did Ernie. And I want to showcase our golf courses. You might remember when I spoke to you and we spoke about golf, you said I should start practicing and I've started practicing, President. So I'm ready. But let me end just the introductory remarks by thanking you. You may not recall that 5 years ago I spoke to you during the COVID period, right? And it was at a time when the whole world was going through a really cathartic moment, right? And we asked for assistance and you were able to assist us with respirators. Respirators and you kept to your word and you delivered respirators to us. We didn't have as many in our country and it really helped to deal, to help us deal with COVID. So I'm here also to say thank you and to thank the people of America for having helped us during a really difficult time being the small economy that we are. We needed help from around the world and you were there to provide that. So thank you very much.
I remember the call. Yeah. We said 150 respirators. We became the respirator king. We started making them. Nobody had them. We had very few of them. That's right. But they were very helpful. But we sent 150 and Yeah. And I appreciated the letter. You wrote me a letter. That's right. Yeah.
Thank you very much. Thank you very much for that. It really touched my heart after I spoke to you and you delivered.
Great honor. Thank you very much. Thank you. Yeah. Any questions, please, Mr. President.
You welcome white African refugees here. Can you explain to Americans why it's appropriate to welcome white Afrikaners here when other refugees like Afghans, Venezuelans, Haitians have all had their protective status revoked?
Well, this is a group NBC that is truly fake news. They ask a lot of questions in a very pointed way. They're not questions, their statements. We've had tremendous complaints about Africa, about other countries too, from people. They say there's a lot of bad things going on in Africa. And that's what we're going to be discussing today. When you say we don't take others, all you have to do is take a look at the southern border. We let 21 million people come through our border, totally unchecked, totally unvetted. They came from all over the world. In many cases, they're criminals. They come from prisons. They come from mental institutions. They come from street gangs. They're drug dealers. So don't say that we didn't take them. We're taking them. We're trying to get them out as fast as we can. And we're doing record business on that. And we just won a big case. We're allowed to send back hundreds of criminals to Venezuela. Just won that today in the Supreme Court. I'm happy to hear. But we do have a lot of people are very concerned with regard to South Africa and that's really the purpose of the meeting and we'll see how that turns out. But we have many people that feel they're being persecuted and they're coming to the United States. So we take from many, many locations if we feel there's persecution or genocide going on and we had a lot of people I must tell you Mr. President, we have had a tremendous number of people, especially since they've seen this, generally they're white farmers and they're fleeing South Africa and it's a very sad thing to see but I hope we can have an explanation of that because I know you don't want that. And it's a kind of a different meeting normally we have meetings we talk about trade and we'll be talking about trade and other things but that certainly will be a subject that comes up. Yep.
Yes, please. Brian, thank you very much. I'd like to get your thoughts on Letitia James. Director Patel, according to him, Letitia James says that the alleged mortgage fraud was simply a mistake. Want to get your thoughts on that. She put down that her father was her husband in the word. And this is very similar to I guess the false attacks they have on here.
Well, I don't know what it is currently, but Letitia James, who's the attorney general of New York State, it seemed I'm not involved in that at all. I know there it's being handled by various groups, I guess, but it's major fraud, mortgage documents, and fraudulent everything. Yeah, I think she said the father was her husband, which she had to have a husband or so she chose her father and she put it down and she had, didn't she sign in Virginia yet? She said she lived in Virginia yet she's the New York state attorney general and she did that for tax reasons so she could take advantage of taxes and she had the wrong number of units. She had a much different number which wouldn't have allowed her to qualify and scam the government. So, I don't know. I think she's very bad for New York, but I really don't know too much about it, but I appreciate the question. Thank you very much.
Yes, Mr. President, what would it take for you to be convinced that there's no genocide, please? Thank you, Mr. President. So May 25th will be the celebration of Africa Day which pretty much a lot of celebration will be taking place around the world including here in the United States. What is your message to the entire African continent, African people in this important occasion?
Well, I want to see peace and I want to see happiness. I want to see health and you know you have incredible land. There's tremendous value. A lot of countries don't have that value in the land, the value you have. You know, we have a situation. I think you probably heard about it. We've done through some very talented people help settle a war that's been raging for years. Rwanda and the Congo. And I think we've done it. Believe it or not, I think we've done it. And could you just say a few words about that, my friend?
Yes. A couple of weeks ago, they signed, the two parties signed the declaration of principle in which they've agreed on the way forward and they have both submitted draft peace agreements and we have put together one that incorporates both of their suggestions and we've given it to them. So, we're in the process of finalizing. Looking very good. No, we have to thank you for even those efforts because the African continent, particularly SADC, our Southern African Development Community, has for years been seeking to foster peace in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. So all efforts including those from outside the continent and inside the continent are really worthwhile. We have just, we are removing our troops from there so that peace can then prevail in that whole area and we hope that with the support of the international community we will really have peace in that area. It's so vital, so important for the whole region.
Well, we sent our people there and I think we did a very good job. I sent it by my friend and that was great. That was great. I mean, I'm just hearing phenomenal reports because all I'm hearing is death, death, and they're chopping heads off and it's horrible over there and it was really brave of you to go there and I really appreciate it and it looks like that it looks like we have something very, very substantial. We also talked about trade with them in terms of rare earth and all but really more for the, it's like if you take a look at what we just did with Pakistan and India we settled that whole thing and I think I settled it through trade. We're doing a big deal with India. We're doing a big deal with Pakistan and I said what are you guys doing? you know, they somebody had to be the last one to shoot, but the shooting was getting worse and worse, bigger and bigger, deeper and deeper into the countries and we spoke to them and I think we, you know I hate to say we got it settled and then two days later something happens and they say it's Trump's fault but Pakistan has got some excellent people and some really good great leader and India is my friend Modi, Modi and he's a mutual friend. Yeah, he's a great guy and I called them both and we just did something good. We're trying to settle Russia-Ukraine. You spoke with President Putin for two and a half hours the day before yesterday. I think we made a lot of progress, but that's a bloodbath. 5,000 people are being killed a week. 5,000 soldiers a week, not including people in cities and towns that are also being killed. So, we're trying to help and it doesn't affect us. It's not our people. It's not our soldiers. It's not our, it's Ukraine and it's Russia. But if we can save 5,000 souls, we'll do it. You know, we're pretty good at it. But it's a, that's a bad situation. That is a really bad situation.
Well, you recall when President Zelensky was coming to South Africa, that's when I spoke to you. That's right. We both agreed that we need to push the peace message so that there can be a little bit of peace. And we've been involved in the Ukraine-Russia conflict for quite a while through my minister of state security here. We've been dealing with them, the exchange of children who were taken away going through names and addresses and all that. So we've been invested in that whole process as well and the moves that you are making are fully supported by us because we would like to see the end of that war.
That's true. I called Zelensky and they said, 'He's in South Africa.' I said, 'What the hell is he doing in South Africa?' He was talking to us. We got this paper. Said, 'That's strange.' They said, I said, 'What are you doing in South Africa?' That's a strange one. He's trying to make peace.
But we were lucky because we had the great Nelson Mandela who taught us how to create peace, to make peace. So we were imparting some of those lessons to him, some of those learnings. And I specifically mentioned to him that this is how Nelson Mandela taught us that when you want to have peace in a country, do it on an unconditional basis and sit down and talk. And that's precisely what I'm sure he's going to hear.
Well, we're going to see what happens with that one. It's a lot of, there's a lot of hatred. There's a lot of death. It's a bloodbath. I get the, unfortunately I get the satellite pictures of that field of that killing field. You never saw anything like it in your life. It's horrible. It's a horrible thing that it goes on. But I think we've made big progress.
Yeah, please go ahead. Thank you, Mr. President.
No, no, not you. Right here. He's from South Africa. Go ahead, please.
What are you expecting on the ICJ case? Are you expecting South Africa to drop that? Is that what you're trying to, which case?
The International Criminal Justice, I don't expect anything to be honest. I really don't. I don't know. It's, they've got a case, there's a lot of anger there. Tremendous anger. I don't expect anything. We'll see what happens. We'll have a ruling and who knows what the ruling is going to mean. Yeah.
On that subject of Gaza, Mr. President, are you going to be speaking to Prime Minister Netanyahu about Israel's renewed offensive there? Been a lot of concern from European countries? The Pope has expressed concern. Are you going to be asking Prime Minister Netanyahu to tone down the offensive in Gaza to let more aid in?
Was that a question or a statement? You never change.
President, what would it take from you for you to be convinced that there's no white genocide in South Africa?
Well, I can answer that for the president, for him.
No, seriously. I'd rather have him answer.
Yeah, I know the answer. It will be our president will respond to you. Thank you, Mr. President. It will take President Trump listening to the voices of South Africans, some of whom are his good friends, like those who are here. When we have talks between us on the quiet around a quiet table, it will take President Trump to listen to them. I'm not going to be repeating what I've been saying. I would say if there was Afrikaner farmer genocide, I can bet you these three gentlemen would not be here, including my minister of agriculture. He would not be with me. So it will take him, President Trump listening to their stories, to their perspective. That is the answer to your question.
But Mr. President, I must say we have no, we have thousands of stories talking about it and we have documentaries. We have news stories on that. Is Natalie here? Somebody here to turn that. I could show you a couple of things and I would, I just, I have to, it has to be responded to. We have, let me see the articles, please, if you would. And turn, excuse me. Turn the lights down. Turn the lights down and just put this on. It's right behind you.
Johan, there's nothing this parliament can do. With or without you, people are going to occupy land. We require no permission from you, from the president, from no one. We don't care. We can do whatever you want to do. Who are you to tell us whether we can occupy land or not? We are going to occupy land. South African occupy land. That's who we are.
I can withdraw my parliament.
Honorable member must never be scared to kill a revolution. Demand that at some point there must be killing because the killing is part of a revolutionary act to kill the farmer, the poor, the former, kill the poor, the former.
The man of DA in PE is a white man. So these people when you want to hit the mask go after a white man. They feel a terrible pain because you have touched a white man. Not because mama and will not be touched. They will be touched. Don't want but you are standing with this whiteness. You are cutting the throne of kill the farmer, the farmer to kill. Kill the poor. The poor, the former, poor, poor, poor.
I don't know what's going to happen in the future. I'm saying to you was not called for the killing of white people at least for now. I can't see the future. I mean you understand something watching that especially gets shared on Twitter they freak out it sounds like go.
Who will expropriate land without compensation whether they like it or not. If they object they can seek a refugee in America.
Now this is very bad. These are the, these are burial sites right here. Burial sites. Over a thousand of white farmers and those cars are lined up to pay love on a Sunday morning. Each one of those white things you see is a cross and there's approximately a thousand of them. They're all white farmers, the family of white farmers. And those cars aren't driving, to stop there to pay respects to their family member who was killed. And it's a terrible site. I've never seen anything like it. Both sides of the road you have crosses. Those people are all killed.
Have they told you where that is, Mr. President?
No, I'd like to know where that is because this I've never seen. I don't. Okay. I mean, it's in South Africa. That's, we need to find out. I don't know what to do. Those people.
Okay, Mr. President, the Pentagon announced that it would be accepting a Qatari jet to be used as Air Force One.
What are you talking about? You know, what are you talking about? You know, you to get out of here. What does this have to do with the Qatari jet? They're giving the United States Air Force a jet. Okay. And it's a great thing. We're talking about a lot of other things. This NBC trying to get off the subject of what you just saw. You are a real, you know, you're a terrible reporter. Number one, you don't have what it takes to be a reporter. You're not smart enough. But for you to go on to a subject about a jet that was given to the United States Air Force, which is a very nice thing. They also gave $5.1 trillion worth of investment in addition to the jet. Go back, you ought to go back to your studio at NBC because Brian Roberts and the people that run that place, they ought to be investigated. They are so terrible the way you run that network and you're a disgrace. No more questions from you. Go ahead. Go ahead. Talk about that. His name is Peter something. He's a terrible reporter. Quiet.
Let's go. Thank you so much, President Trump. Alex from ENCA in South Africa. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. What would you like President Ramaphosa to do about the situation that we just seen on the screen?
I don't know. Look, these are articles over the last few days. Death of people. Death. Death. Horrible death. Death. I don't know to pick anyone. White South Africans are fleeing because of the violence and racist laws and this is all, I mean I'll give these to you. So when you say what would I like to do? I don't know what to do. Look at this. White South African couples say that they were attacked violently. And President Trump, when will you go and see for yourself if it isn't? Well, I could do that. Look, here's burial sites all over the place. are all, these are all white farmers that are being burned and he asks about a jet that was given. You ought to be ashamed if you know you're, you are so bad. You're such a bad reporter. This is one after another his family was wiped out. I just, I'm just looking.
Can we get us your reaction to those videos, Mr. President?
Well, I think it's, I think the videos are so, no, no. When you look at the videos, I mean, how does it get worse? And these are people that are officials and they're saying that kill the white farmer and take their land. That's what. And I have other friends in South Africa. I have people that left, one in particular that says it's, you can't go there. He said they want to take your land. They take your land and they kill you. It's okay. And they say it's okay to do. Now we're going to talk about it. But this is a tremendous, look, this is story recent. These are all people that recently got killed. Yeah. And I don't know how it can get any worse. These are. And you know the man that you saw, the men that you saw, the people that you saw in that movie, those are officials. Those are people that were in office. They had one march. They had a dance in your parliament, whatever you may call it, legislature.
Let me clarify that. Let me clarify that because what you saw, the speeches that were being made, one, that is not government policy. We have a multi-party democracy in South Africa that allows people to express themselves, political parties to adhere to various policies and in many cases or in some cases those policies do not go along with government policy. Our government policy is completely, completely against what he was saying even in the parliament and they a small minority party which is allowed to exist in terms of our constitution.
But you do allow them to take land. No, no, no, you do allow them to take land. Nobody can take, when they take the land they kill the white farmer and when they kill the white farmer nothing happens to them.
No, there is, quite nothing happens to them. There is criminality in our country. People who do get killed unfortunately through criminal activity are not only white people. Majority of them are black people. And we have now black.
The farmers are not black. I don't say that's good or bad, but the farmers are not black. And the people that are being killed in large numbers and you saw all those grave sites and those are people that loved ones going I guess on a Sunday morning they told me to pay respect to their loved ones that were killed their heads chopped off, they died violently. And you know I mean we're here to talk about it and I didn't know we'd get involved here but I will say this that if the news wasn't fake like NBC which is fake news. Totally. One of the worst. ABC, NBC, CBS, horrible. But if they weren't fake news, like this jerk that we have here. If we had real reporters, they'd be covering it. But the fake news in this country doesn't talk about that. They don't want to talk about it. But now they have to talk about it. But they won't. This won't even be a subject. They'll have him talking about why did a country give a free, think of this. Why did a country give an airplane to the United States Air Force? Okay. The United States, not to me, to the United States Air Force so they could help us out because we need an Air Force One until our, that's Air Force One. It's being built. Two of them being built. But Boeing's a little bit late, unfortunately. So, why did they give us a plane to the United States Air Force? That's what that idiot talks about after viewing a thing where thousands of people are dead. I'm sorry. I don't have a plane to give you. I would, I wish you did. I take it. I would take it. If your country offered the United States Air Force a plane, I would take it. Okay.
But coming back to this issue which I really would like us to talk about and talk about it very calmly. We were taught by Nelson Mandela that whenever there are problems, people need to sit down around a table and talk about them. Well, there and this is precisely what we would also like to talk about including of course trade matters, investment matters. So the issues that concern you as the United States, those are all recent and those are all deaths. Yeah. In many ways I mean one should say you are a partner of South Africa and you are raising concerns and these are concerns that we are willing to talk to you about. Let me just add quickly, you know, the criminality that we are experiencing in our country needs quite a lot of technological capability and in one of our areas in South Africa, we're using US technology which is able to in many ways identify where shootings are happening and all that. And I'd like to talk about that because there is support that we can get from you and the United States to help us deal with all these acts of criminality. And that is what I believe partnership is all about. And we are here as a partner so that we can help each other whenever there are challenges. So I'd like us to discuss it and of course outside of the media so that we sit down and have a really good discussion that will lead to good outcomes.
Are there any other punitive measures that could be in place should you not be satisfied that South Africa is fixing some of the very bad things that you tweeted are happening?
Well, there are a lot of bad things happening in, you know, many countries, but this in particular has been very, very bad. Very bad. And because of, you know, we're going to have the whole world watching in another short period of time because you have the G20 and that's a big deal. And it seems, it seems like I mean, I want you to look good. I don't want you to look bad. Very good. But you, we have hundreds of people, thousands of people trying to come into our country because they feel they're going to be killed and their land is going to be confiscated. And you do have laws that were passed that gives you the right to confiscate land for no payment. You can take away land for no payment.
I want to clarify that because we have a constitution. Our constitution guarantees and protects the sanctity of tenure of land ownership. And that constitution protects all South Africans with regard to land ownership. However, we do say because we've got to deal with the past, the government and as your government also has the right to expropriate land for public use.
And you're doing that and what we, we've never really gotten underway with that and we are going to be doing something. You're taking, you're taking people's land away. We have not. from them. We have and those people in many cases are being executed. They're being executed and they happen to be white and most of them happen to be farmers. And that's a tough situation. I don't know how you explain that. How do you explain that? They're taking people's land away and in many cases those people are being executed and in many cases it's not the government that's people that kill them and then take their land and nothing happens to them. But we have thousands of people that want to come into our country. They're also going to Australia in a smaller number, but we have thousands of people that want to come into our country and they're white farmers and they feel that they're going to die in South Africa and it's a bad thing. Yeah.
G20. What can South Africa do? What concessions would you like to see them make to improve relations with the United States? Then I have one more for President Ramaphosa afterwards.
Well, you know, we just spoke about I got them a very, very complex machine, 150 of them and I was asked by the president if it could help and I did that and you know I have great feeling for all countries. I look I deal with all countries. But I have a great feeling for South Africa because I have friends. I have a couple of friends, a few friends here today. I have many friends from South Africa, but many of those friends are not, they can't go back. I have Elon is from South Africa. I don't want to get Elon involved. That's all I have to do. Get him into another thing. But Elon happens to be from South Africa. This is what Elon wanted. He actually came here on a different subject. Sending rockets to Mars. Okay. He likes that better. He likes that subject better. But Elon is from South Africa and I don't want to talk to him about that. I don't think it's fair to him. But I will say that people are fleeing South Africa for their own safety. Their land is being confiscated and in many cases they're being killed. And that scene of you see how many crosses they have. Those crosses that's a dead person in every one of them. and those trucks or cars are paying their respects to all of those dead people on a Sunday morning. That's a rough thing to explain away. And the problem we have and the way you know a correct and a fair media exposes things, but we have a very corrupt media. They won't even report this. If this were the other way around, it would be the biggest story. Now I will say apartheid terrible that was the biggest that was reported all the time. This is sort of the opposite of apartheid. What's happening now is never reported. Nobody knows about it. All we know is we're being inundated with people with white farmers from South Africa. And it's a big problem. Marco Rubio was telling me he's never seen anything like it. The numbers of people that want to leave South Africa because they feel they're going to be dead very soon.
Yes. Brian go. If I could just ask you a question. 72% of farmers in your country are white. If they flee, do you feel that maybe the economy could collapse? You may not have a gap to fill in those people that need to replace those farmers.
You know, I'd like my Minister of Agriculture, who is white, who comes from an opposition party to mine, who's joined my government and my invitation to address this very issue, including the question that you've just raised, John.
Thank you very much, Mr. President. Mr. President, thank you for welcoming us to the White House. I would say we have a rural safety crisis in South Africa. I don't think anyone wants to candy coat that and it requires a lot of effort to get on top of it. It's going to require more policing resources. It's going to require different strategy to be able to deal with it. But certainly the majority of South Africa's commercial and small holder farmers really do want to stay in South Africa and make it work. And I've just come from the largest agricultural show in the southern hemisphere with organized agriculture and farmers and the majority of them want to stay. But they too there have a memorial to those who've died as a result of farm attacks. And as the Minister of Agriculture, it is something that I'm particularly exercised with my colleagues at police and my colleagues in the justice cluster to stop making farm attacks and stock theft a priority crime and it affects all farmers in South Africa. Particularly stock theft has a disproportionate effect on small holder black farmers. I also want to just say this that the two individuals that are in that video that you've seen are both leaders of opposition minority parties in South Africa. The uMkhonto weSizwe under Mr. Zuma and the Economic Freedom Fighters under Mr. Malema. Now the reason that my party the Democratic Alliance which has been an opposition party for over 30 years chose
To join hands with Mr. Ramaphosa's party was precisely to keep those people out of power. We cannot have those people sitting in the Union Buildings making decisions. And that is why after 30 years of us exchanging barbs across the floor in Parliament and trying to get one over on each other, we've decided to join hands precisely to keep that lot out of government. Because the day they get into the doors of the Union Buildings in South Africa or control of our Parliament, that's what you're going to see. And that is why this government working together needs the support of our allies around the world so that we can strengthen our hand, grow our economy, and shut the door forever on that rabble getting through the doors of the Union Buildings, because then South Africa's future would be...
So you denounce that type of language in the video that you saw? Oh yes, we've always done so. As government, as my own party, we are completely opposed to that. We in 1955 adopted a document which said South Africa belongs to all who live in it.
But why wouldn't you arrest that man? That man said kill the white farmers. Kill the white farmers. And then he danced and he's dancing, dancing, and it's kill the white farmers. I think, I'm not sure, but I think if somebody got up in Parliament and started saying kill a certain group of people, he would be arrested very quickly. That man is going all over South Africa and that's not a small party. That was a stadium that holds 100,000 people and I hardly saw an empty seat. That's a lot of people. That's a lot of representation. And those crosses, we have dead white people, dead white farmers mostly. And you take a look at Australia, they're being inundated and we're being inundated with people that want to get out and their farm is valueless. It's valueless and they just want to get out with their life. And this is a very serious situation. And if we had a real news or real press or media, we don't have that because they won't talk about this because they're all guys like that idiot. But if we had a real press, it would be exposed. And you know, the beauty of exposing it is it's like a cleansing action. When it gets exposed, it'll get fixed. That's when it'll get fixed. But people don't talk about it. And I'll tell you who's talking about the thousands of people that are fleeing South Africa right now.
We discussed US aid and the devastating impact the cuts are having across the African continent.
Yeah, it's devastating and hopefully a lot of people are going to start spending a lot of money. And I've talked to other nations. We want them to chip in and spend money too. And we've spent a lot and it's a tremendous problem going on in many countries. A lot of problems going on. The United States always gets the request for money. Nobody else helps. As you know, Europe doesn't help. Europe hasn't given anything. All they do is sue our companies. You know, they sue Apple and they sue all of our companies. Apple had to pay 17 billion dollars on a nonsense lawsuit. Very unfair. But we're going to always be there to help.
SABC, South African Broadcasting. If this Afrikaner resettlement issue is resolved, you're going to go into a room after this. You guys are going to talk. If it is resolved, what is the potential for the future looking relationships?
Fantastic. It's got to be resolved. It should be resolved. It's a little bit bad when you see a stadium with 100,000 people in it because that means it's more than just a little movement. It's a pretty big movement in South Africa. So it has to be resolved. It'll be the end of the country if it's not. The potential for the relationship moving forward, I hope so. That's why I'm here. November. I mean, I'm not here for my health. I'm here to see what it means. No, I'd like to see, I have friends. I can tell you Ernie and Retief, they feel so strongly they wanted to be here on behalf of South Africa, not on behalf of me. Yes. And you know, they said, 'Can we be here for this?' Because they love the country. Ernie, do you guys want to say a couple of words or anything? I hate to put you in this. This is tougher than sinking a three-footer.
Three-footers. They have and they've sank many three-footers. Thank you, Mr. President. And thanks for the honor of being here. We've known each other a long time. We have spoken. You know, we're proud South Africans. I still have my South African passport. We travel with this passport, you know, and I got my visa here. So, you know, but we want to see things get better in our home country. That's the bottom line. It's been 35 years since the transition. President Ramaphosa was right in the middle of the transition time in 1990 and before that. So it's been 35 years of ANC government. And I know there's a lot of anger, you know, through the transition. There's always a lot of stuff happening in the apartheid days. You know, we grew up in the apartheid era. But I don't think two wrongs make a right. You know, President Mandela when he came out of prison for all that time didn't come out with hatred, you know, and really unified our nation through sport. You know, we won the Rugby World Cup in '95, four times we won the African Nations Cup soccer, you know, we won some majors as golfers and so forth. So what I'm trying to say is, you know, this has been a long time coming. That's why we really wanted to meet you, meet the administration and see our way forward because we still want to see our country flourish. You know, we got some great things going on. Business is getting involved with government. Farmers are getting involved in local municipalities trying to rebuild some of the infrastructure that's been decaying for a long time. So there's a lot of coexistence going on and help from a lot of areas, but I feel we need the US to push this thing through. We've got a great ally we can have. The US has always been an ally of South Africa for a very long time. Even in the days of the war, you know, up in Angola, you know, you guys helped us. So, very important for us to have your support and, you know, get the change we need.
Where did you do that? Well, he might have done that even better than he plays golf, which is almost impossible. Johan, please.
Sorry, Mr. President. If you had to wind all of those types properly, you will see I'm the biggest target of that rabble-rouser. Number one for over 10 years, Mr. Malema. In fact, the first time I met him, he was in the youth league with that gentleman and look how he's changed, right? We have too many deaths, but it's across the board. It's not only white farmers, it's across the board. And we need technological help. We need Starlink at every little police station. We need drones. I actually got drones donated for the peace parks to stop elephant and rhino poaching and his predecessor stopped the importation because he said the United States would spy on us. I mean, you ask me, it's the ridicule. So if we can, if you can help us. Remember sir, you and I lived in New York in the 70s. We never thought New York could be what it became. Two commissioners, a tough mayor. We need your help to stop this awful killing. But it's across the board. Ernie is right now building a house in George. I'm building three cottages for my grandchildren on a farm outside. I often go to bed without locking the door and we have a serious problem with illegal aliens who stream across the border. And if you really look at our statistics, a lot of these murders, firstly, it's unemployment and illegal aliens. And then I met Vice President J.D. Vance. My wife loved the book. And she reminded me this morning that you emphasized the devastation that occurs when big companies leave towns and cities and there's a culture of dependency that develops. I remember you discussing it. Now that's our problem. If we don't get our economy to grow, the culture of dependency and the lawlessness will increase. I've again been against the ANC all my life and I'm their number one target. Please just Google my name and Malema. You'll see it, sir. Yeah. He marched on the... But the crime is bad. The crime is terrible, sir. But Mr. John Steenhuisen won't admit to it, but he runs the Western Cape where I live. And the biggest murder rate is in the Cape Flats, gangs. We've got gang warfare like your MS-13, whatever these guys, we've got equivalents there, but we need your help, sir, and we need Elon's technology.
Well, one of the real areas of support is really in investments. We've got to grow our economy because through growing the economy, we're then able to create more jobs because crime really thrives where there is inequality and unemployment. And that is one of the reasons that has brought us here to improve our investment relations, our trade relations, so that we can preserve the number of jobs that your companies have created in South Africa. By virtue of what we export to you, we are able to create up to 500,000 jobs in the auto industry, in the agricultural industry, and a number of other industries, mining where we export things to you. And we also know that as South African companies invest here, you are also able to create jobs. So it's a mutually beneficial relationship. So our main real reason for being here is to foster trade and investment so that we are able to grow our economy, your support, and so that we're also able to address all these societal problems because criminality thrives when people are unemployed, when they have no other hope to eke out a living. So that is what we need to resolve and your support, your partnership with us is what is really going to give us a strong, strong capability to move forward.
Excuse me. You have anything to say? I mean I don't want to leave you out. You know the guy won three or four majors. Three or four? No, I mean two. Two. That's a lot. By the way, two is a lot. A lot of tournaments you won, too. Do you have anything to say?
Yeah. Thank you, Mr. President. President Ramaphosa. I grew up in an area in South Africa that is a farmland area, Polokwane, and there is some issues up there. Obviously, my dad was a property developer as well as a part-time farmer. And yeah, some of these buddy farmers got killed. The farm is still going. My brothers run it, but it's a constant battle with farms trying to get, they're trying to burn the farms down to chase you away. So, it is a concern to try and make a living as a farmer. And at the end, you know, without farmers, there's no food on the plate. So, we need the farmers to produce the food. He wouldn't do it. He wouldn't even want to do what you're doing. They love farming. They don't want to leave. But it's a struggle. Yeah. And you know, food and fresh water is the most important thing in life. You know, without those two things, you can't survive. How is the water there? The water's great, obviously. All the water comes out of the borehole, out of the ground for us down there. But yeah, it is a battle to get the water out sometimes when all the equipment gets stolen all the time that you're trying to get. Does your family and your brother do they feel safe on the farm? They live behind electric fences, you know, try and be at night safe. But it is constant whenever you leave that something could happen and both of them has been attacked in their houses. My mom's been attacked in the house when she was 80. So it is difficult. But you know the guys live a great life despite everything going on.
President Trump, I brought along the president of the largest trade union in our country, Zingiswa Losi, because she leads many, many workers, more than one million, one and a two million workers. And maybe we should give her a chance to say something because she's come all the way to join us.
Thank you very much, Mr. President Trump for having us and President for extending the invitation to us as organized labor. And I must say that we are here to support the initiative that has been made by our government with business. Of course, as organized labor, we've been coming to Washington on the AGOA trade relations in the previous regime and I think at the center of it all for me it is exactly what Mr. Rupert have said, the importance of us growing the economy. We have always emphasized when we were here and kept on coming and negotiating on AGOA that the 600 US companies that are based in South Africa, as you said President Ramaphosa, 500,000 jobs will be wiped out. We need more foreign direct investment in our country. We are not just talking about those that will lose employment but we are talking about over 40% of people that are unemployed that have no hope of ever finding a job. And we think that correctly as they have said that we need to deal with the issue of porous borders in our country so that everyone that comes in is documented. We also need to, and I would have thought that the minister would address the issue of land expropriation and how the policy works in South Africa. Recently, President, as you were preparing to come here, on the news, I think there was a handover of farms and white farmers were saying we are donating the land but also there's a willing buyer willing seller in South Africa. So there is no expropriation without compensation but it is a willing buyer willing seller. And that white farmer was even saying, President, that the government is even paying more in buying the land than what the land is worth. And I think those are the realities, President, that we must say that we need to address of course but also the importance of agriculture linked to our goal. Yeah, people rely on it and I think as Retief said for survival and living. But lastly for me, President, is also the issue of the crime statistics. There is no doubt about it that we are a violent nation, you know, for a number of reasons and we're not condoning anything. But also if you go into the rural areas where black majority are, you would see women, elderly being raped, being killed, being murdered. And these are black elderly women that would be found throat slits, raped multiple times and all of that. And the problem in South Africa, it is not necessarily about race, but it is about crime. And we think that we are here to say how do we both nations work together to reset, to really talk about investment but also help us in how we can have the technology and everything that is needed, President, to really address the levels of crime that we have in our country. Thank you very much.
Genocide, genocide is a very long word. I'm wondering if you've made up your mind as to whether you believe genocide is occurring in South Africa or you still doubt. And if you have made up your mind, why invite President here today?
Well, I haven't made up my mind. I hate to see it from the standpoint of South Africa, but also, you know, I'm trying to save lives. I'm working with Russia and Ukraine. I don't have to do that. It's not our war. It was started by other people. Was helped along by our past administration. It would have never happened if I were president. But I'm trying to save lives no matter where. Rwanda, I have nothing to do with Rwanda and the Congo, but I felt I had a very talented person in this administration and I sent him there and he did an unbelievable job, I think. I mean, we're going to find out, but he's done the hardest part of the job. It should happen. If I can save lives, I want to save the lives. If it's in Africa, that's great. If it's in Europe, if it's wherever it may be. And it's a very small investment to do, believe me, compared to what the consequences are. So I hope we can do something. Look, I have so many friends. These two men, I have great admiration for them because I know what they do for a living. And that's a very hard living. Going from city to city, from country to country, and hitting a ball 350 yards like they do. And better than you and I and getting the ball in the hole. It's a very tough with lots of people watching, right? It's a very tough living and you know they're champions. I respect champions and I respect very much and I think the country is very lucky. They really wanted to be here. That's true. They could be elsewhere. They could be on a beautiful fairway someplace and they wanted to be here.
Glad you brought my name from Newsroom Africa in South Africa. How important is it for the United States to be at our G20 summit in November given the relationship between our two countries? You've just heard what has been said to you just now. Are you coming and are you preparing to come?
So without the United States, the G20, just like the G7 used to be the G8, but brilliantly they threw Russia out. Would have been a lot better if Russia was in. You know, a lot of people would say, 'Oh, that's not it.' Because if Russia was in, you probably wouldn't have this war. And if you had a different president, you wouldn't have the war either. But we have a G7. It's important that the United States is in both of them. I think without the United States, it's, I really believe it's not very important. It's not the same meaning.
As I said to President Trump, the US really originated the G20 and it's important that the United States continues to play a key role in the G20 and we are privileged to be the president of the G20 but we are even overjoyed that we are going to hand over to the United States who are the originators and for that reason I expect the United States to continue playing the leadership role in the G20 together with other countries. And I've said when I initially spoke to President Trump on the phone I want him to come to South Africa for a state visit and I also want him to come and participate in the G20 and I want to gladly hand over to President Trump to take the leadership of the G20 forward in November. Thank you very much. Thank you very much.
They don't want to leave. They like everybody. Please keep moving. Thank you. Thank you. Golf is still doing great in South Africa and they have young players I hear coming up that are going to be very good. But it's an honor to have you here and my friend, it's an honor to have you. One of the greatest businessmen in South Africa and long and long beyond. Thank you for being here. It's a very, very great honor. Appreciate it. So we're going to be discussing certain things. As you know, we have the G20 is going to South Africa. When is that going to be? In November. In November. And thereafter, I hand over to you. And yes, we have it next year. You originated the G20. So, I'll hand over the baton to you and then you lead the G20. We're going to have it. We're going to have it the following year. Yeah. So, we'll be discussing many things and some of the things you've been reading about in the papers. Yes. The media and I would say that look the president is a truly respected man in many, many circles and in some circles he's considered a little controversial but we're going to be discussing some of the things that are taking place in South Africa and see if we can help and we want to help and we've had a long relationship with South Africa. I have because indirectly I have so many friends that live there. I have a lot of friends, I mean these famous guys, but I have a lot of friends that live there that are tremendous people and we'll be discussing that. We'll have a nice conversation and I really appreciate that you guys came along. It really helps us in our thought process. But it is a great honor to have you and I appreciate you called. You called, I don't know where he got my number but I picked up. He said I want to come over and see you and that was my honor and thank you very much for being here. You're most welcome. Most welcome.
Well, thank you very much for welcoming us to this reformed White House. I've been here before and it looks really fantastic. I must congratulate you. Thank you. But I also thank you for allowing our delegation. This is a very mixed delegation that you've got. We've got people from government, my ministers. I've got someone from the trade union movement who you really collaborate with and from business as well and our sporting legends. When I spoke to you, you said yes, come along and bring Gary Player, bring Ernie Els and Retief. In my years, but wishes us luck in this discussion with you. So, it's a real joy and I'd also like to thank you for allowing your people to start discussions with us at the trade level. I mean, we are essentially here to reset the relationship between the United States and South Africa. We are long-standing partners in many, many ways. We've collaborated in many fields in space issues, in energy, and in trade. And we therefore need to reset that particularly in the light of some of the announcements that you made on trade and investment. So we want to advance more trade between the two of us, our two countries and our people now have been empowered by yourself and by myself to start engaging and we hope that we will be able to fuel that engagement during our talks. And we also want to discuss issues that have to do with how we promote further investments in both countries. We've got about 22 companies from South Africa that have invested in the US that's creating a number of jobs and similarly you've got almost 600 companies that have invested in South Africa and some of them have been in South Africa for more than 100 years. That's true. So our links are really long-lasting and we would like to recalibrate those relations between our two countries and discuss a whole range of issues, geopolitical, the work that you're doing to bring peace around the world in Ukraine and in the Middle East. So we value that and we are also a great contributor to peace processes that are going on around the world and of course we want to discuss how we can support each other. You are a much bigger economy than we are. We're just a tiny economy but we rely on each other on a number of issues. We've got critical minerals that you want to fuel the growth of your own economy and re-industrialize. So we have that on offer including rare earth minerals. So all that combination of opportunity and the products that we buy from you as well as what we sell to you I believe makes up a really good and powerful relationship which we need to strengthen, which we need to engender and that is really what has brought us here and we are really privileged to have great South Africans in the mix as you said you'd like to see them as well. Brought you a really fantastic golf book, weighs 14 kg. Oh, that sounds good. And it showcases the golf courses in our country. Johan Rupert wrote a preface so did Ernie. And I want to showcase our golf courses. You might remember when I spoke to you and we spoke about golf, you said I should start practicing and I've started practicing, President. So I'm ready. But let me end just the introductory remarks by thanking you. You may not recall that five years ago I spoke to you during the COVID period, right? And it was at a time when the whole world was going through a really cathartic moment, right? And we asked for assistance and you were able to assist us with respirators. Respirators. Yeah, respirators. And you kept to your word and you delivered respirators to us. We didn't have as many in our country and it really helped to deal, to help us deal with COVID. So I'm here also to say thank you and to thank the people of America for having helped us during a really difficult time being the small economy that we are. We needed help from around the world and you were there to provide that. So thank you very much.
I remember the call. Yeah. We said 150 respirators. We became the respirator king. We started making them. Nobody had them. We had very few of them. That's right. But they were very helpful. What we said, 150. And I appreciated the letter you wrote me, a letter. That's right. Thank you. I appreciate that very much. Thank you very much for that. It really touched my heart after I spoke to you and you delivered. Great honor. Thank you very much.
Any questions please? Mr. President, you welcome white African refugees here. Can you explain to Americans why it's appropriate to welcome white Afrikaners here when other refugees like Afghans, Venezuelans, Haitians have all had their protective status revoked?
Well, this is a group, NBC, that is truly fake news. They ask a lot of questions in a very pointed way. They're not questions, their statements. We've had tremendous complaints about Africa, about other countries too, from people. They say there's a lot of bad things going on in Africa, and that's what we're going to be discussing today. When you say we don't take others, all you have to do is take a look at the southern border. We let 21 million people come through our border totally unchecked, totally unvetted. They came from all over the world. In many cases, they're criminals. They come from prisons. They come from mental institutions. They come from street gangs. They're drug dealers. So don't say that we didn't take them. We're taking them. We're trying to get them out as fast as we can. And we're doing record business on that. And we just won a big case where we're allowed to send back hundreds of criminals to Venezuela. Just won that today in the Supreme Court. I'm happy to hear. But we do have a lot of people are very concerned with regard to South Africa and that's really the purpose of the meeting and we'll see how that turns out. But we have many people that feel they're being persecuted and they're coming to the United States. So we take from many, many locations if we feel there's persecution or genocide going on. And we had a lot of people, I must tell you, Mr. President, we have had a tremendous number of people especially since they've seen this. Generally they're white farmers and they're fleeing South Africa and it's a very sad thing to see but I hope we can have an explanation of that because I know you don't want that. And it's a kind of a different meeting. Normally we have meetings, we talk about trade and we'll be talking about trade and other things but that certainly will be a subject that comes up. Yep.
Yes, please. Brian, thank you very much. I'd like to get your thoughts on Letitia James. Director Patel, according to him, Letitia James says that the alleged mortgage fraud was simply a mistake. I want to get your thoughts on that. She put down that her father was her husband in the word. And this is very similar to I guess the false attacks they have on here.
Well, I don't know what it is currently, but Letitia James, who's the attorney general of New York State, it seemed, I'm not involved in that at all. I know there it's being handled by various groups, I guess, but it's major fraud, mortgage documents and fraudulent everything. Yeah, I think she said the father was her husband, which she had to have a husband or so she chose her father and she put it down. And she said, didn't she sign in Virginia yet? She said she lived in Virginia yet she's the New York state attorney general and she did that for tax reasons so she could take advantage of taxes and she had the wrong number of units. She had a much different number which wouldn't have allowed her to qualify and scam the government. So, I don't know. I think she's very bad for New York, but I really don't know too much about it, but I appreciate the question.
Thank you very much, Mr. President. You to be convinced that there's no genocide, please. Thank you, Mr. President. So May 25th will be the celebration of Africa Day which pretty much a lot of celebration will be taking place around the world including here in the United States. What is your message to the entire African continent, African people in this important occasion?
Well, I want to see peace and I want to see happiness. I want to see health and you know you have incredible land, it's tremendous value. A lot of countries don't have that value in the land the value you have. You know, we have a situation. I think you probably heard about it. We've done through some very talented people help settle a war that's been raging for years. Rwanda and the Congo. And I think we've done it. Believe it or not, I think we've done it. And could you just say a few words about that, my friend?
Yes. A couple of weeks ago, they signed, the two parties signed a declaration of principle in which they've agreed on the way forward and they have both submitted draft peace agreements and we have put together one that incorporates both of their suggestions and we've given it to them. So, we're in the process of finalizing, looking very good. No, we have to thank you for even those efforts because the African continent, particularly SADC, our Southern African Development Community, has for years been seeking to foster peace in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. So all efforts including those from outside the continent and inside the continent are really worthwhile. We are removing our troops from there so that peace can then prevail in that whole area and we hope that with the support of the international community we will really have peace in that area. It's so vital, so important for the whole region.
Well, we sent our people there and I think we did a very good job. I said it by my friend and that was great. That was great. I mean, I'm just hearing phenomenal reports because all I'm hearing is death, death, and they're chopping heads off and it's horrible over there and it was really brave of you to go there and I really appreciate it and it looks like we have something very, very substantial. We also talked about trade with them in terms of rare earth and all but really more for the, it's like if you take a look at what we just did with Pakistan and India we settled that whole thing and I think I settled it through trade. We're doing a big deal with India. We're doing a big deal with Pakistan and I said what are you guys doing? You know, somebody had to be the last one to shoot, but the shooting was getting worse and worse, bigger and bigger, deeper and deeper into the countries and we spoke to them and I think we, you know, I hate to say we got it settled and then two days later something happens and they say it's Trump's fault but Pakistan has got some excellent people and some really good, a great leader and India is my friend Modi. Modi. And he's a mutual friend. Yeah, he's a great guy. And I called him both and we just did something good. We were trying to settle Russia-Ukraine. You spoke with President Putin for two and a half hours the day before yesterday. I think we made a lot of progress, but that's a bloodbath. 5,000 people are being killed a week. 5,000 soldiers a week, not including people in cities and towns that are also being killed. So, we're trying to help and it doesn't affect us. It's not our people. It's not our soldiers. It's Ukraine and it's Russia. But if we can save 5,000 souls, we'll do it. You know, pretty good at it. But it's a bad situation. That is a really bad situation.
Well, you recall when President Zelensky was coming to South Africa, that's when I spoke to you. That's right. We both agreed that we need to push the peace message so that there can be a little bit of peace. And we've been involved in the Ukraine-Russia conflict for quite a while. My minister of state security here. We've been dealing with them in the exchange of children who were taken away going through names and addresses and all that. So we've been invested in that whole process as well. And the moves that you are making are fully supported by us because we would like to see the end of that war.
That's true. And I called Zelensky and they said, 'He's in South Africa.' I said, 'What the hell is he doing in South Africa?' That's a strange one. He's trying to make peace.
But we were lucky because we had the great Nelson Mandela who taught us how to create peace, to make peace. So we were imparting some of those lessons to him, some of those learnings. And I specifically mentioned to him that this is how Nelson Mandela taught us that when you want to have peace in a country, do it on an unconditional basis and sit down and talk. And that's precisely what I'm sure he's going to hear.
Well, we're going to see what happens with that one. It's a lot of hatred, there's a lot of death. It's a bloodbath. I get the, unfortunately I get the satellite pictures of that field, of that killing field. You never saw anything like it in your life. It's horrible. It's a horrible thing that it goes on. But I think we've made big progress.
Yeah, please go ahead. Thank you, Mr. President. No, no, not you. Right here. He's from South Africa. Go ahead, please. What are you expecting on the ICJ case? Are you expecting South Africa to drop that? Is that what you're trying to, on which case? The International Criminal Justice...
I don't expect anything to be honest. I really don't. I don't know. They've got a case, there's a lot of anger there. Tremendous anger. I don't expect anything. We'll see what happens. We'll have a ruling and who knows what the ruling is going to mean. Yeah.
On that subject of Gaza, Mr. President, are you going to be speaking to Prime Minister Netanyahu about Israel's renewed offensive? Being a lot of concern from European countries. The Pope has expressed concern. Are you going to be asking Prime Minister Netanyahu to tone down the offensive in Gaza to let more aid in?
Was that a question or a statement? You never change.
President, what will it take from you for you to be convinced that there's no white genocide in South Africa?
Well, I can answer that for President. It's for him. No, seriously. I'd rather have him answer. Yeah, I'd rather answer. It will be my President will respond to you. Thank you, Mr. President. It will take President Trump listening to the voices of South Africans, some of whom are his good friends like those who are here. When we have talks between us on the quiet, around a quiet table, it will take President Trump to listen to them. I'm not going to be repeating what I've been saying. I would say if there was Afrikaner farmer genocide, I can bet you these three gentlemen would not be here, including my minister of agriculture. He would not be with me. So it'll take him, President Trump, listening to their stories, to their perspective. That is the answer to your question.
But Mr. President must say we have no... wait. We have thousands of stories talking about it and we have documentaries. We have news stories and that is Natalie here, somebody here to turn that I could show you a couple of things and I would, I just, I have to, it has to be responded to. Sure. Let me see the articles please if you would and turn, excuse me. Turn the lights down. Turn the lights down and just put this on. It's right behind you.
Johan, there's nothing this parliament can do. With or without you, people are going to occupy land. We require no permission from you, from the president, from no one. We don't care. We can do whatever you want to do. Who are you to tell us whether we can occupy land or not? We are going to occupy land. South Africa, occupy land. That's who we are.
I can withdraw my property from this party. Honorable must never be scared to kill. A revolution demands that at some point there must be killing because the killing is part of a revolutionary act. To kill. Kill the Boer. The former, kill the Boer, the former...
Kill the farmer. The mayor of Gqeberha in PE is a white man. So these people when you want to hit the mark, go after a white man. They feel a terrible pain because you have touched a white man. Not because amaXhosa will not be touched. They will be touched. Don't want, but you are standing with this whiteness. You are cutting the throat of one. So you kill the farmer. The farmer to kill. Kill the Boer. The Boer, the former...
I don't know what's going to happen in the future. I'm saying to you was not called for the killing of white people at least for now. I can't guarantee the future. But I mean you'd understand something watching that especially get shared on Twitter and they freak out. It sounds like a motorcycle.
Who will expropriate land without compensation whether they like it or not. If they object they can seek refugee in America.
Now this is very bad. These are burial sites right here. Burial sites over a thousand of white farmers and those cars are lined up to pay love on a Sunday morning. Each one of those white things you see is a cross and there's approximately a thousand of them. They're all white farmers, the family of white farmers. And those cars aren't driving. They're stopped there to pay respects to their family member who was killed. And it's a terrible sight. I've never seen anything like it. Both sides of the road you have crosses. Those people are all killed.
Have they told you where that is, Mr. President?
No, I'd like to know where that is because this I've never seen. I don't. Okay. I mean, it's in South Africa. That's where we need to find out.
Okay, Mr. President, the Pentagon announced that it would be accepting a Qatari jet to be used as Air Force One.
What are you talking about? You know, what are you talking about? You know, you to get out of here. What does this have to do with the Qatar jet? They're giving the United States Air Force a jet. Okay. And it's a great thing. We're talking about a lot of other things. It's NBC trying to get off the subject of what you just saw. You are a real, you know, you're a terrible reporter. Number one, you don't have what it takes to be a reporter. You're not smart enough. But for you to go on to a subject about a jet that was given to the United States Air Force, which is a very nice thing. They also gave $5.1 trillion worth of investment in addition to the jet. Go back, you ought to go back to your studio at NBC because Brian Roberts and the people that run that place, they ought to be investigated. They are so terrible the way you run that network and you're a disgrace. No more questions from you. Go ahead. Go ahead. Talk about that. His name is Peter something. He's a terrible reporter. Quiet.
Let's go. Thank you so much, President Trump, Adam from eNCA in South Africa. Thank you very much. Thank you very much, D. What would you like President Ramaphosa to do about the situation that we've just seen on the screen?
I don't know. All look, these are articles over the last few days. Death of people. Death. Death. Horrible death. Death. I don't know. But you know to pick anyone. White South Africans are fleeing because of the violence and racist laws. And this is all, I mean I'll give these to you. So when you say what would I like to do? I don't know what to do. Look at this. White South African couples say that they were attacked violently. And President Trump, when will you go and see for yourself if it is a... Well, I could do that. Look, here's burial sites all over the place. They're all, these are all white farmers that are being buried and he asks about a jet that was given. You ought to be ashamed of yourself. You know, you are so bad. You're such a bad reporter. Mr. President, Mr. President, this is one after another. This family was wiped out. I just, I'm just looking. Can we get from the reaction to those videos? Well, I think it's, I think the videos are so... No, no. When you look at the videos, I mean, how does it get worse? And these are people that are officials and they're saying that kill the white farmer and take their land. That's what I'm... other friends in South Africa have people that left, one in particular that says it's, you can't go there. He said they want to take your land. They take your land and they kill you. It's okay. And they say it's okay to do. Now we're going to talk about it. But this is a tremendous look. This is story recent. These are all people that recently got killed. Yeah. And I don't know how it can get any worse. And you know the man that you saw, the men that you saw, the people that you saw on that movie, those are officials. Those are people that were in office. They had one march. They had a dance in your parliament, whatever you may call it, legislature.
Let me clarify that. Let me clarify that because what you saw, the speeches that were being made, one, that is not government policy. We have a multi-party democracy in South Africa that allows people to express themselves, political parties to adhere to various policies and in many cases or in some cases those policies do not go along with government policy. Our government policy is completely, completely against what he was saying even in the parliament and they are a small minority party which is allowed to exist in terms of our constitution.
But you do allow them to take land. No, no, no, you do allow them to take land. Nobody can take, when they take the land they kill the white farmer and when they kill the white farmer nothing happens to them.
No, there is, quite nothing happens to them. There is criminality in our country. People who do get killed unfortunately through criminal activity are not only white people. Majority of them are black people. And we have now black...
The farmers are not black. I don't say that's good or bad, but the farmers are not black. And the people that are being killed in large numbers and you saw all those grave sites and those are people that loved ones going I guess on a Sunday morning they told me to pay respect to their loved ones that were killed, their heads chopped off, they died violently. And you know, I mean we're here to talk about it and I didn't know we'd get involved here but I will say this that if the news wasn't fake like NBC which is fake news. Totally. One of the worst. ABC, NBC, CBS. Horrible. But if they weren't fake news, like this jerk that we have here, if we had real reporters, they'd be covering it. But the fake news in this country doesn't talk about that. They don't want to talk about it. But now they have to talk about it. But they won't. This won't even be a subject. They'll have him talking about why did a country give a free, think of this. Why did a country give an airplane to the United States Air Force? Okay, the United States, not to me, to the United States Air Force so they could help us out because we need an Air Force One until our, that's Air Force One. It's being...
Two of them being built. But Boeing's a little bit late, unfortunately. So why did they give us a plane to the United States Air Force? That's what that idiot talks about after viewing a thing where thousands of people are dead. I'm sorry. I don't have a plane to give you. I wish you did. I would take it. If your country offered the United States Air Force a plane, I would take it. Okay.
But coming back to this issue, which I really would like us to talk about and talk about it very calmly. We were taught by Nelson Mandela that whenever there are problems, people need to sit down around a table and talk about them. And this is precisely what we would also like to talk about, including of course trade matters, investment matters. So the issues that concern you as the United States, those are all... In many ways, one should say you are a partner of South Africa and you are raising concerns and these are concerns that we are willing to talk to you about.
Let me just add quickly, you know, the criminality that we are experiencing in our country needs quite a lot of technological capability. And in one of our areas in South Africa, we're using US technology which is able to in many ways identify where shootings are happening and all that. And I'd like to talk about that because there is support that we can get from you and the United States to help us deal with all these acts of criminality. And that is what I believe partnership is all about. And we are here as a partner so that we can help each other whenever there are challenges. So I'd like us to discuss it and of course outside of the media so that we sit down and have a really good discussion that will lead to good outcomes.
Are there any other punitive measures that could be in place should you not be satisfied that South Africa is fixing some of the very bad things that you treated are happening?
Well, there are a lot of bad things happening in many countries, but this in particular has been very, very bad. Very bad. And because of, you know, we're going to have the whole world watching in another short period of time because you have the G20. And that's a big deal. And it seems like, I mean, I want you to look good. I don't want you to look bad. Very good. But we have hundreds of people, thousands of people trying to come into our country because they feel they're going to be killed and their land is going to be confiscated. And you do have laws that were passed that gives you the right to confiscate land for no payment. You can take away land for no payment.
I want to clarify that because we have a constitution. Our constitution guarantees and protects the sanctity of tenure of land ownership. And that constitution protects all South Africans with regard to land ownership. However, we do say because we've got to deal with the past, the government and as your government also has the right to expropriate land for public use. And we've never really gotten underway with that and we are going to be doing that.
You're taking people's land. We have not from them. Come here. And those people in many cases are being executed. They're being executed and they happen to be white and most of them happen to be farmers. And that's a tough situation. I don't know how you explain that. How do you explain that? They're taking people's land away. And in many cases, those people are being executed. And in many cases, it's not the government that's suing. It's people that kill them and then take their land and nothing happens to them. But we have thousands of people that want to come into our country. They're also going to Australia in a smaller number. But we have thousands of people that want to come into our country and they're white farmers and they feel that they're going to die in South Africa and it's a bad thing.
G20. What can South Africa do? What concessions would you like to see them make to improve relations with the United States? Then I have one more for President Ramaphosa afterwards.
Well, you know, we just spoke about I got them a very, very complex machine, 150 of them. And I was asked by the president if it could help and I did that. And you know, I have great feeling for all countries. I deal with all countries. But I have a great feeling for South Africa because I have friends. I have a couple of friends, a few friends here today. I have many friends from South Africa. But many of those friends are not... they can't go back. I have Elon is from South Africa. I don't want to get Elon involved. That's all I have to do. Get him into another thing. But Elon happens to be from South Africa. This is what Elon wanted. He actually came here on a different subject. Sending rockets to Mars. Okay. He likes that better. He likes that subject better. That's right. But Elon is from South Africa and I don't want to talk to him about that. I don't think it's fair to him. That's right. But I will say that people are fleeing South Africa for their own safety. Their land is being confiscated and in many cases they're being killed. And that scene of you see how many crosses they have. Those crosses, that's a dead person in every one of them. And those trucks or cars are paying their respects to all of those dead people on a Sunday morning. That's a rough thing to explain away.
And the problem we have and the way a correct and a fair media exposes things. But we have a very corrupt media. They won't even report this. If this were the other way around, it would be the biggest story. Now, I will say apartheid terrible. That was the biggest story that was reported all the time. This is sort of the opposite of apartheid. What's happening now is never reported. Nobody knows about it. All we know is we're being inundated with people, with white farmers from South Africa and it's a big problem. Marco Rubio was telling me he's never seen anything like it. The numbers of people that want to leave South Africa because they feel they're going to be dead very soon.
Brian, go ask a question. 72% of farmers in your country are white. If they flee, do you feel that maybe the economy could collapse? You may not have a gap to fill in those people that need to replace those farmers.
You know, I'd like my Minister of Agriculture, who is white, who comes from an opposition party to mine, who's joined my government at my invitation, to address this very issue, including the question that you've just raised, John.
Thank you very much, Mr. President. Mr. President, thank you for welcoming us to the White House. I would say we have a rural safety problem. I don't think anyone wants to candy coat that and it requires a lot of effort to get on top of it. It's going to require more policing resources. It's going to require different strategy to be able to deal with it. But certainly the majority of South Africa's commercial and smallholder farmers really do want to stay in South Africa and make it work. And I've just come from the largest agricultural show in the southern hemisphere with organized agriculture and farmers and the majority of them want to stay. But they too there have a memorial to those who've died as a result of farm attacks. And as the Minister of Agriculture, it is something that I am particularly exercised with my colleagues at police and my colleagues in the justice cluster to stop making farm attacks and stock theft a priority crime and it affects all farmers in South Africa. Particularly stock theft has a disproportionate effect on smaller black farmers.
I also want to just say this that the two individuals that are in that video that you've seen are both leaders of opposition minority parties in South Africa. The uMkhonto weSizwe under Mr. Zuma and the Economic Freedom Fighters under Mr. Malema. Now the reason that my party, the Democratic Alliance, which has been an opposition party for over 30 years, chose to join hands with Mr. Ramaphosa's party was precisely to keep those people out of power. We cannot have those people sitting in the Union Buildings making decisions. That is why after 30 years of us exchanging barbs across the floor in parliament and trying to get one over on each other, we've decided to join hands precisely to keep that lot out of government because the day they get into the doors of the Union Buildings in South Africa or control of our parliament, that's what you're going to see. And that is why this government working together needs the support of our allies around the world so that we can strengthen our hand, grow our economy and shut the door forever on that rabble getting through the doors of the Union Buildings because then South Africa's future will be...
So you denounce that type of language in the video that you saw?
Oh yes, we've always done so. As government, as my own party, we are completely opposed to that. We in 1955 adopted a document which said South Africa belongs to all who live in it.
But why wouldn't you arrest that man? That man said, 'Kill the white farmers. Kill the white farmers.' And then he danced and he's dancing, dancing, and it's 'kill the white farmers.' I think, I'm not sure, but I think if somebody got up in parliament and started saying kill a certain group of people, he would be arrested very quickly. That man is going all over South Africa and that's not a small party. That was a stadium that holds 100,000 people and I hardly saw an empty seat. That's a lot of people. That's a lot of representation. And those crosses, we have dead white people, dead white farmers mostly. And you take a look at Australia, they're being inundated, and we're being inundated with people that want to get out. And their farm is valueless. It's valueless. And they just want to get out with their life. And this is a very serious situation. And if we had a real news or real press or media, we don't have that because they won't talk about this because they're all guys like that idiot. But if we had a real press, it would be exposed. And you know, the beauty of exposing it is it's like a cleansing action. When it gets exposed, it'll get fixed. That's when it'll get fixed. But people don't talk about it. And I'll tell you who's talking about it, the thousands of people that are fleeing South Africa right now.
We discussed US aid and the devastating impact the cuts are having across the African continent.
You know, it's devastating and hopefully a lot of people are going to start spending a lot of money. And I've talked to other nations. We want them to chip in and spend money too. And we've spent a lot and it's a tremendous problem going on in many countries. A lot of problems going on. The United States always gets the request for money. Nobody else helps. As you know, Europe doesn't help. Europe hasn't given anything. All they do is sue our companies. You know, they sue Apple and they sue all of our companies. Apple had to pay 17 billion dollars on a nonsense lawsuit. Very unfair. But we're going to always be there to help.
President, South African Broadcasting. If this Afrikaner resettlement issue is resolved, we're going to go into a room after this. You guys are going to talk. If it is resolved, what is the potential for the future looking relationship?
Fantastic. It's got to be resolved. It should be resolved. It's a little bit bad when you see a stadium with 100,000 people in it because that means it's more than just a little movement. It's a pretty big movement in South Africa. So, it has to be resolved. It'll be the end of the country if it's not.
The potential for the relationship moving forward?
I hope so. That's why I'm here. I mean, I'm not here for my health. I'm here to see what... No, I'd like to see... I have friends. I can tell you Ernie Els and Retief Goosen, they feel so strongly they wanted to be here on behalf of South Africa, not on behalf of me. And you know, they said, 'Can we be here for this?' Because they love the country. Ernie, do you guys want to say a couple of words or anything? I hate to put you in this. This is tougher than sinking a three-footer.
They've seen me on three-footers. They have and they've missed many three-footers.
Thank you, Mr. President. And thanks for the honor of being here. We've known each other a long time. We have spoken. You know, we're proud South Africans. I still have my South African passport. We travel with this passport, you know, and I got my visa here. So, you know, but we want to see things get better in our home country. That's the bottom line. It's been 35 years since the transition. President Ramaphosa was right in the middle of the transition time in 1990 and before that. So it's been 35 years of ANC government. And I know there's a lot of anger, you know, through the transition. There's always a lot of stuff happening in the apartheid days. You know, we grew up in the apartheid era. But I don't think two wrongs make a right. You know, President Mandela when he came out of prison for all that time didn't come out with hatred, you know, and really unified our nation with every sport. You know, we won the Rugby World Cup in '95, four times. We won the African Nations Cup, our soccer. You know, we won some majors as golfers and so forth. So what I'm trying to say is, you know, this has been a long time coming. That's why we really wanted to meet your administration and see our way forward because we still want to see our country flourish. You know, we got some great things going on. Business is getting involved with government. Farming, farmers are getting involved in local municipalities trying to rebuild some of the infrastructure that's been decaying for a long time. So there's a lot of coexistence going on and help from a lot of areas but we need, I feel we need the US to push this thing through. We've got a great ally. If we can have the US, it's always been an ally of South Africa for a very long time. Even in the days of the war, you know, up in Angola, you know, you guys helped us. So, very important for us to have your support and get the change we need.
Where did you do that? Well, he might have done that even better than he plays golf, which is almost impossible. Johan, please.
Sorry, Mr. President. If you had to wind all of those types properly, you will see I'm the biggest target of that rabble rouser. Number one for over 10 years, Mr. Malema. In fact, the first time I met him, he was in the youth league with that gentleman and look how he's changed, right? We have too many deaths, but it's across the board. It's not only white farmers, it's across the board. And we need technological help. We need Starlink at every little police station. We need drones. I actually got drones donated for the peace parks to stop elephant and rhino poaching and his predecessor stopped the importation because he said the United States would spy on us. I mean, you as basics, the ridicule. So if we can, if you can help us, remember sir, you and I lived in New York in the '70s. We never thought New York could be what it became. Two commissioners, a tough mayor. We need your help to stop this awful killing. But it's across the board. Ernie is right now building a house in George. I'm building three cottages for my grandchildren on a farm outside. I often go to bed without locking the door. And we have a serious problem with illegal aliens who stream across the border. And if you really look at our statistics, a lot of these murders, firstly, it's unemployment and illegal aliens. And then I met Vice President Pence many years ago, the Charlie Rose show. My wife loved the book. But she reminded me this morning that you emphasized the devastation that occurs when big companies leave towns and cities and there's a culture of dependency that develops. I remember you discussing it. Now that's our problem. If we don't get our economy to grow, the culture of dependency and the lawlessness will increase. I've again been against the EFF all my life and I'm their number one target. Please just Google my name and Malema. You'll see it, sir. Yeah. He marched on the floor. But the crime is bad. The crime is terrible, sir. But Mr. Christian Nason won't admit to it, but he runs the Western Cape where I live. And the biggest murder rate is in the Cape Flats, gangs. We've got gang warfare like your MS-13, whatever these guys, we've got equivalents there, but we need your help, sir, and we need Elon's technology.
Well, one of the real areas of support is really in investments. We've got to grow our economy because through growing the economy, we're then able to create more jobs because crime really thrives where there is inequality and unemployment. And that is one of the reasons that has brought us here to improve our investment relations, our trade relations so that we can preserve the number of jobs that your companies have created in South Africa by virtue of what we export to you. We are able to create up to 500,000 jobs in the auto industry, in the agricultural industry, and a number of other industries, mining where we export things to you. And we also know that as South African companies invest here you are also able to create jobs so it's a mutually beneficial relationship. So our main real reason for being here is to foster trade and investment so that we are able to grow our economy with your support and so that we're also able to address all these societal problems because criminality thrives when people are unemployed when they have no other hope to eke out a living. So that is what we need to resolve and your support. Your partnership with us is what is really going to give us a strong capability to move forward.
Excuse me. You have anything to say? I mean I don't want to leave you out. You know, the guy won three or four majors.
Three or four? No, I need two. Two.
That's a lot. By the way, two is a lot. A lot of tournaments you want, too. You have anything to say?
Yeah. Thank you, Mr. President. President Ramaphosa. I grew up in an area in South Africa that is a farmland area, Polokwane. And there is some issues up there. Obviously, my dad was a property developer as well as a part-time farmer and yeah, some of his buddy farmers got killed. The farm is still going. My brothers run it, but it's a constant battle with farms trying to get... they're trying to burn the farms down to chase you away. So, it is a concern to try and make a living as a farmer. And at the end, you know, without farmers, there's no food on a plate. So we need the farmers.
Your brother loves the farming. He wouldn't do it. He wouldn't even want to do what you're doing. They love farming. They don't want to leave. But it's a struggle. Yeah. And you know food and fresh water is the most important thing in life. You know about those two things you can't survive. How is the water there?
The water is great. Obviously, all the water comes out of a borehole out of ground for us down there. But yeah, it is a battle to get the water out sometimes when all the equipment gets stolen all the time that you're trying to get.
So, does your family and your brother do they feel safe on the farm?
They live behind electric fences, you know, try and be at night safe. But it is constant whenever you leave that something could happen and there's no way to live. You know, both of them has been attacked in their houses. My mom's been attacked in the house when she was 80. So it is difficult but you know the guys live a great life despite everything going on.
President Trump, I've brought along the president of the largest trade union in our country, Ziggy Solos, because she leads many, many workers, more than one million, one and a two million workers and maybe we should give her a chance to say something because she's come all the way to join us.
Thank you very much, Mr. President Trump for having us and President for extending the invitation to us as organized labor and I must say that we are here to support the initiative that has been made by our government with business of course as organized labor. We've been coming to Washington on the AGOA trade relations in the previous regime and I think at the center of it all for me it is exactly what Mr. Rupert have said, the importance of us growing the economy. We have always emphasized when we were here and kept on coming and negotiating on AGOA that the 600 US companies that are based in South Africa, as you said President Ramaphosa, 500,000 jobs will be wiped out. We need more foreign direct investment in our country. We are not just talking about those that will lose employment but we are talking about over 40% of people that are unemployed that have no hope of ever finding a job and we think that correctly as they have said that we need to deal with the issue of porous borders in our country so that everyone that comes in is documented. We also need to and I would have thought that the minister would address the issue of land expropriation and how the policy works in South Africa. Recently President as you were preparing to come here on the news, I think it was on SABC, there was a handover of farms and white farmers were saying we are donating the land but also there's a willing buyer willing seller in South Africa so there is no expropriation without compensation but it is a willing buyer willing seller and that white farmer was even saying earlier that the government is even paying more in buying the land than what the land is worth. And I think those are the realities President that we must say that we need to address of course but also the importance of agriculture linked to our goal. People rely on it and I think as Ret said for survival and living. But lastly for me President is also the issue of the crime statistics. There is no doubt about it that we are a violent nation. You know, for a number of reasons and we're not condoning anything. But also if you go into the rural areas where black majority are, you would see women, elderly being raped, being killed, being murdered. And these are black elderly women that would be found throat slits, raped multiple times and all of that. And the problem in South Africa, it is not necessarily about race, but it is about crime. And we think that we are here to say how do we both nations work together to reset to really talk about investment but also help us in how we can have the technology and everything that is needed President to really address the levels of crime that we have in our country. Thank you very much.
Mr. President, genocide is a very strong word. I'm wondering if you've made up your mind as to whether you believe genocide is occurring in South Africa or you still doubt and if you have made up your mind why invite President Ramaphosa here today.
Well, I haven't made up my mind. I hate to see it from the standpoint of South Africa, but also you know I'm trying to save lives. I'm working with Russia and Ukraine. I don't have to do that. It's not our war. It was started by other people. Was helped along by our past administration. It would have never happened if I were president. But I'm trying to save lives no matter where. Rwanda, I have nothing to do with Rwanda and the Congo, but I felt I had a very talented person in this administration and I sent him there and he did an unbelievable job, I think. I mean, we're going to find out, but he's done the hardest part of the job. It should happen. If I can save lives, I want to save the lives. If it's in Africa, that's great. If it's in Europe, if it's wherever it may be. And it's a very small investment to do, believe me, compared to what the consequences are. So I hope we can do something. Look, I have so many friends. These two men, I have great admiration for them because I know what they do for a living. And that's a very hard living. Going from city to city, from country to country, and hitting a ball 350 yards like they do. And better than you and I and getting the ball in the hole. It's a very tough with lots of people watching, right? That's a very tough living and you know they're champions. I respect champions and I respect very much and I think the country is very lucky. They really wanted to be here. That's true. They could be elsewhere. They could be on a beautiful fairway someplace and they wanted to be here.
My name is Mzwandile from Newsroom Africa in South Africa. How important is it for the United States to be at our G20 summit in November given the relationship between our two countries? You've just heard what has been said to you just now. Are you coming and are you preparing to come?
So without the United States, the G20 just like the G7 used to be the G8, but brilliantly they threw Russia out. Would have been a lot better if Russia was in. You know, a lot of people would say, 'Oh, that's not it.' Because if Russia was in, you probably wouldn't have this war. And if you had a different president, you wouldn't have the war either. But we have a G7. It's important that the United States is in both of them. I think without the United States, it's... I really believe it's not very important. It's not the same meeting.
As I said to President Trump, the US really originated the G20 and it's important that the United States continues to play a key role in the G20 and we are privileged to be the president of the G20 but we are even overjoyed that we are going to hand over to the United States who are the originators and for that reason I expect the United States to continue playing the leadership role in the G20 together with other countries. And I've said when I initially spoke to President Trump on the phone, I want him to come to South Africa for a state visit and I also want him to come and participate in the G20 and I want to gladly hand over to President Trump to take the leadership of the G20 forward in November. Thank you very much.
They don't want to leave. They like everybody. Please keep moving. Thank you. Keep going. Keep going. Thank you. Golf is still doing great in South Africa and they have young players I hear coming up that are going to be very good. But it's an honor to have you here and my friend, it's an honor to have you. One of the greatest businessmen in South Africa and long beyond. Thank you for being here. It's a very great honor. Appreciate it. So we're going to be discussing certain things. As you know, we have the G20 is going to South Africa. When is that going to be? In November. In November. And thereafter, I hand over to you. And yes, we have it next year. You originated the G20. So, I'll hand over the baton to you and then you lead the G20. We're going to have it. We're going to have it the following year. Yeah. So we'll be discussing many things and some of the things you've been reading about in the papers. Yes. The media and I would say that look the president is a truly respected man in many circles and in some circles he's considered a little controversial but we're going to be discussing some of the things that are taking place in South Africa and see if we can help and we want to help and we've had a long relationship with South Africa I have because indirectly I have so many friends that live there I have a lot of friends I mean these famous guys, but I have a lot of friends that live there that are tremendous people and we'll be discussing that. We'll have a nice conversation and I really appreciate that you guys came along. It really helps us in our thought process. But it is a great honor to have you and I appreciate you called. He called I don't know where he got my number but I picked up he said I want to come over and see you. That was my honor and thank you very much for being here. You're most welcome.
Well, thank you very much for welcoming us to this reformed White House. I've been here before and it looks really fantastic. I must congratulate you. Thank you. But I also thank you for allowing our delegation. This is a very mixed delegation that you've got. We've got people from government, my ministers. I've got someone from the trade union movement who you really collaborate with and from business as well and our sporting legends. When I spoke to you, you said yes, come along and bring Gary Player, bring Ernie Els and Retief Goosen. I brought the two of them. Gary Player, now I spoke to him and he said look I'm getting rather on in my years but wishes us luck in this discussion with you. So it's a real joy and I'd also like to thank you for allowing your people to start discussions with us at the trade level. I mean we are essentially here to reset the relationship between the United States and South Africa. We are long-standing partners in many ways. We've collaborated in many fields in space issues in energy and in trade and we therefore need to reset that particularly in the light of some of the announcements that you made on trade and investment. So we want to advance more trade between the two of us, your two countries and our people now have been empowered by yourself and by myself to start engaging and we hope that we will be able to fuel that engagement during our talks. And we also want to discuss issues that have to do with how we promote further investments in both countries. We've got about 22 companies from South Africa that have invested in the US that's creating a number of jobs and similarly you've got almost 600 companies that have invested in South Africa and some of them have been in South Africa for more than a hundred years. That's true. So our links are really long-lasting and we would like to recalibrate those relations between our two countries and discuss a whole range of issues geopolitical the work that you're doing to bring peace around the world in Ukraine and in the Middle East. So we value that and we are also a great contributor to peace processes that are going on around the world and of course we want to discuss how we can support each other. You are a much bigger economy than we are. We're just a tiny economy but we rely on each other on a number of issues. We've got critical minerals that you want to fuel the growth of your own economy and re-industrialize. So we have that on offer including rare earth minerals. So all that combination of opportunity and the products that we buy from you as well as what we sell to you I believe makes up a really good and powerful relationship which we need to strengthen which we need to engender and that is really what has brought us here and we are really privileged to have great South Africans in the mix as you said you'd like to see them as well and I brought you a really fantastic golf book weighs 14 kg. Oh, and it showcases the golf courses in our country. Johan Rupert wrote a preface so did Ernie. And I want to showcase our golf courses. You might remember when I spoke to you and we spoke about golf, you said I should start practicing and I've started practicing, President. So I'm ready. But let me end just the introductory remarks by thanking you. You may not recall that 5 years ago I spoke to you during the COVID period, right? And it was at a time when the whole world was going through a really cathartic moment, right? And we asked for assistance and you were able to assist us with respirators. Respirators and you kept to your word and you delivered respirators to us. We didn't have as many in our country and it really helped to deal, to help us deal with COVID. So I'm here also to say thank you and to thank the people of America for having helped us during a really difficult time being the small economy that we are we needed help from around the world and you were there to provide that. So thank you very much.
I remember the call. Yeah. We said 150 respirators. We became the respirator king. We started making them. Nobody had them. We had very few of them. That's right. But they were very helpful. But we sent 150 and Yeah. And I appreciated the letter. You wrote me a letter on that. That's right. Yeah. Thank you very much. Thank you very much for that. It really touched my heart after I spoke to you and you delivered. So great honor. Thank you very much. Thank you. Yeah. Any questions, please, Mr. President.
You welcome white African refugees here. Can you explain to Americans why it's appropriate to welcome white Afrikaners here when other refugees like Afghans, Venezuelans, Haitians have all had their protective status revoked.
Well, this is a group NBC that is truly fake news. They ask a lot of questions in a very pointed way. They're not questions, their statements. We've had tremendous complaints about Africa, about other countries too, from people. They say there's a lot of bad things going on in Africa. And that's what we're going to be discussing today. When you say we don't take others, all you have to do is take a look at the southern border. We let 21 million people come through our border, totally unchecked, totally unvetted. They came from all over the world. In many cases, they're criminals. They come from prisons. They come from mental institutions. They come from street gangs. They're drug dealers. So don't say that we didn't take them. We're taking them. We're trying to get them out as fast as we can. And we're doing record business on that. And we just won a big case. We're allowed to send back hundreds of criminals to Venezuela. Just won that today in the Supreme Court. I'm happy to hear. But we do have a lot of people are very concerned with regard to South Africa and that's really the purpose of the meeting and we'll see how that turns out. But we have many people that feel they're being persecuted and they're coming to the United States. So we take from many locations if we feel there's persecution or genocide going on and we had a lot of people I must tell you Mr. President, we have had a tremendous number of people, especially since they've seen this, generally they're white farmers and they're fleeing South Africa and it's a very sad thing to see but I hope we can have an explanation of that because I know you don't want that. And it's a kind of a different meeting normally we have meetings we talk about trade and we'll be talking about trade and other things but that certainly will be a subject that comes up.
Yes, please. Brian, thank you very much. I'd like to get your thoughts on Letitia James. Director Patel, according to him, Letitia James says that the alleged mortgage fraud was simply a mistake. Want to get your thoughts on that. She put down that her father was her husband in the word. And this is very similar to, I guess, the false attacks they have on here.
Well, I don't know what it is currently, but Letitia James, who's the attorney general of New York State, it seemed I'm not involved in that at all. I know there it's being handled by various groups, I guess, but it's major fraud, mortgage documents, and fraudulent everything. Yeah, I think she said the father was her husband, which she had to have a husband or so she chose her father and she put it down and she had... didn't she sign in Virginia yet she said she lived in Virginia yet she's the New York state attorney general and she did that for tax reasons so she could take advantage of taxes and she had the wrong number of units. She had a much different number which wouldn't have allowed her to qualify and scam the government. So, I don't know. I think she's very bad for New York, but I really don't know too much about it, but I appreciate the question.
Thank you very much, Mr. President. You need to be convinced that there's no genocide, please. Thank you, Mr. President. So May 25th will be the celebration of Africa Day which pretty much a lot of celebration will be taking place around the world including here in the United States. What is your message to the entire African continent, African people in this important occasion?
Well, I want to see peace and I want to see happiness. I want to see health and you know you have incredible land. There's tremendous value. A lot of countries don't have that value in the land, the value you have. You know, we have a situation. I think you probably heard about it. We've done through some very talented people help settle a war that's been raging for years. Rwanda and the Congo. And I think we've done it. Believe it or not, I think we've done it. And could you just say a few words about that, my friend?
Yes. A couple of weeks ago, they signed, the two parties signed a declaration of principle in which they've agreed on the way forward and they have both submitted draft peace agreements and we have put together one that incorporates both of their suggestions and we've given it to them. So we're in the process of finalizing, looking very good.
No, we have to thank you for even those efforts because African continent, particularly SADC, our Southern African Development Community, has for years been seeking to foster peace in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. So all efforts including those from outside the continent and inside the continent are really worthwhile. We have just, we are removing our troops from there so that peace can then prevail in that whole area and we hope that with the support of the international community we will really have peace in that area. It's so vital, so important for the whole region.
Well, we sent our people there and I think we did a very good job. I said it by my friend and that was great. That was great. I mean, I'm just hearing phenomenal reports because all I'm hearing is death, death, and they're chopping heads off and it's horrible over there and it was really brave of you to go there and I really appreciate it and it looks like we have something very substantial. We also talked about trade with them in terms of rare earth and all but really more for the... it's like if you take a look at what we just did with Pakistan and India we settled that whole thing and I think I settled it through trade. We're doing a big deal with India. We're doing a big deal with Pakistan and I said what are you guys doing? You know, somebody had to be the last one to shoot, but the shooting was getting worse and worse, bigger and bigger, deeper and deeper into the countries and we spoke to them and I think we, you know, I hate to say we got it settled and then two days later something happens and they say it's Trump's fault but Pakistan has got some excellent people and some really great leaders and India is my friend Modi and he's a mutual friend. Yeah, he's a great guy and I called them both and we just did something good. We're trying to settle Russia-Ukraine.
You spoke with President Putin for two and a half hours the day before yesterday.
I think we made a lot of progress, but that's a bloodbath. 5,000 people are being killed a week. 5,000 soldiers a week, not including people in cities and towns that are also being killed. So, we're trying to help and it doesn't affect us. It's not our people. It's not our soldiers. It's not our... It's Ukraine and it's Russia. But if we can save 5,000 souls, we'll do it. You know, we're pretty good at it. But that's a bad situation. That is a really bad situation.
Well, you recall when President Zelensky was coming to South Africa, that's when I spoke to you. That's right. We both agreed that we need to push the peace message so that there can be a little bit of peace. And we've been involved in the Ukraine-Russia conflict for quite a while through my minister of state security here. We've been dealing with them, the exchange of children who were taken away, going through names and addresses and all that. So, we've been invested in that whole process as well and the moves that you are making are fully supported by us because we would like to see the end of that war.
That's true. I called Zelensky and they said, 'He's in South Africa.' I said, 'What the hell is he doing in South Africa?' He was talking to us. We got this paper. They said, 'That's strange.' I said, 'What are you doing in South Africa?' Yes, that's a strange one. He's trying to make peace.
But we were lucky because we had the great Nelson Mandela who taught us how to create peace, to make peace. So we were imparting some of those lessons to him, some of those learnings. And I specifically mentioned to him that this is how Nelson Mandela taught us that when you want to have peace in a country, do it on an unconditional basis and sit down and talk. And that's precisely what I'm sure he's going to hear.
Well, we're going to see what happens with that one. There's a lot of hatred. There's a lot of death. It's a bloodbath. I get the unfortunately I get the satellite pictures of that field of that killing field. You never saw anything like it in your life. It's horrible. It's a horrible thing that it goes on. But I think we've made big progress.
Yeah, please go ahead. Thank you, Mr. President.
No, no, not you. Right here. He's from South Africa. Go ahead, please.
What are you expecting on the ICJ case? Are you expecting South Africa to drop that? Is that what you're trying to... On which case, the International Criminal Justice...?
I don't expect anything to be honest. I really don't. I don't know. They've got a case, there's a lot of anger there. Tremendous anger. I don't expect anything. We'll see what happens. We'll have a ruling and who knows what the ruling is going to mean.
Yeah. On that subject of Gaza, Mr. President, are you going to be speaking to Prime Minister Netanyahu about Israel's renewed offensive there being a lot of concern from European countries? The Pope has expressed concern. Are you going to be asking Prime Minister Netanyahu to tone down the offensive in Gaza to let more aid in?
Was that a question or a statement? You never change.
President, what would it take from you for you to be convinced that there's no white genocide in South Africa?
Well, I can answer that for the president for him.
No, seriously. I'd rather have him answer.
Yeah, I know the answer. It will be our president will respond to you. Thank you, Mr. President. It will take President Trump listening to the voices of South Africans, some of whom are his good friends, like those who are here. When we have talks between us on the quiet around a quiet table, it will take President Trump to listen to them. I'm not going to be repeating what I've been saying. I would say if there was Afrikaner farmer genocide, I can bet you these three gentlemen would not be here, including my minister of agriculture. He would not be with me. So it will take him, President Trump listening to their stories, to their perspective. That is the answer to your question.
But Mr. President, I must say we have thousands of stories talking about it and we have documentaries, we have news stories on that.
Is Natalie...
Here? Somebody here to turn that. I could show you a couple of things and I would... I just have to... It has to be responded to. Let me see the articles, please, if you would. And turn... Excuse me. Turn the lights down. Turn the lights down and just put this on.
It's right behind you. Johan, there's nothing this parliament can do. With or without you, people are going to occupy land. We require no permission from you, from the president, from no one. We don't care. We can do whatever you want to do. Who are you to tell us whether we can occupy land or not? We are going to occupy land. South African occupy land. That's who we are.
Speakerless party must never be scared to kill a revolution. Demand that at some point there must be killing because the killing is part of a revolutional act to kill the mother. Kill the poor farmer.
Who the man of DJ in PE is a white man. So these people when you want to hit the mask go after a white man. They feel a terrible pain because you have touched a white man. Not because mama and will not be touched. They will be touched. Don't worry. But we are starting with this whiteness. You are cutting the throat of whiteness.
Get the brewer. The farmer. Get the brewer. The farmer. Shoot to kill. Kill the poor. The farmer. Kill the poor. The farmer.
Poor, I don't know what's going to happen in the future. I'm saying to you was not called for the killing of white people at least for now. I can't see the future.
I mean you understand something watching that especially as it gets shared on Twitter they freak out. It sounds like...
Who will expropriate land without compensation whether they like it or not. If they object they can seek a refugee in America.
Now this is very bad. These are the... these are burial sites right here. Burial sites over a thousand of white farmers. And those cars are lined up to pay love on a Sunday morning. Each one of those white things you see is a cross. And there's approximately a thousand of them. They're all white farmers, the family of white farmers. And those cars aren't driving. They're stopped there to pay respects to their family member who was killed. And it's a terrible sight. I've never seen anything like it. Both sides of the road you have crosses.
Those people were all killed. Have they told you where that is, Mr. President?
No. I'd like to know where that is because this I've never seen.
Without. Okay. I mean, it's in South Africa this week. We need to find out.
Okay, Mr. President, the Pentagon announced that it would be accepting a Qatari jet to be used as Air Force One.
What are you talking about? You know, what are you talking about? You know, you to get out of here. What does this have to do with the Qatara jet? They're giving the United States Air Force a jet. Okay. And it's a great thing. We're talking about a lot of other things. This NBC trying to get off the subject of what you just saw. You are a real... you know, you're a terrible reporter. Number one, you don't have what it takes to be a reporter. You're not smart enough. For you to go on to a subject about a jet that was given to the United States Air Force, which is a very nice thing. They also gave 5.1 trillion dollars worth of investment. In addition to the jet, go back... you ought to go back to your studio at NBC because Brian Roberts and the people that run that place, they ought to be investigated. They are so terrible the way you run that network and you're a disgrace. No more questions from you. Go ahead.
Go ahead. Talk about that. His name is Peter something. He's a terrible reporter.
Quiet. Quiet. My question. Let's go. Thank you so much, President Trump. Alex from EMCA in South Africa. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. What would you like President Ramaphosa to do about the situation that we just seen on the screen?
I don't know. Or look, these are articles over the last few days. Death of people. Death, horrible death. Death. I don't know to pick anyone. White South Africans are fleeing because of the violence and racist laws. And this is all... I mean I'll give these to you so when you say, 'What would I like to do?' I don't know what to do. Look at this. White South African couples say that they were attacked violently. And President Trump, when will you go and see for yourself if it isn't? Well, I could do that. Look, here's burial sites all over the place. They're all... these are all white farmers that are being buried. And he asks about a jet that was given. You ought to be ashamed if you know you're... you are so bad. You're such a bad reporter.
Mr. President, Mr. President, this is one after another that his family was wiped out. I just... I'm just looking. Can we get us your reaction to those videos, Mr. President?
Well, I think it's... I think the videos are so... No, no. When you look at the videos, I mean, how does it get worse? And these are people that are officials and they're saying that kill the white farmer and take their land. That's what... And I have other friends in South Africa. I have people that left, one in particular that says it's... you can't go there. He said they want to take your land. They take your land and they kill you. It's okay. And they say it's okay to do. Now we're going to talk about it. But this is a tremendous... look. This is story recent. These are all people that recently got killed. Yeah. And I don't know how it can get any worse. These are... And you know the man that you saw, the men that you saw, the people that you saw on that movie, those are officials. Those are people that were in office. They had one march. They had a dance in your parliament, whatever you may call it, legislature.
Let me clarify that. Yeah, let me clarify that because what you saw the speeches that were being made, one, that is not government policy. We have a multi-party democracy in South Africa that allows people to express themselves, political parties to adhere to various policies and in many cases or in some cases those policies do not go along with government policy. Our government policy is completely, completely against what he was saying even in the parliament and they a small minority party which is allowed to exist in terms of our constitution.
But you do allow them to take land. No, no, no, you do allow them to take land. Nobody can take... when they take the land they kill the white farmer and when they kill the white farmer nothing happens to them.
No, there is... quite nothing happens to them. There is criminality in our country. People who do get killed unfortunately through criminal activity are not only white people. Majority of them are black people. And we have now black...
The farmers are not black. I don't say that's good or bad, but the farmers are not black. And the people that are being killed in large numbers and you saw all those grave sites and those are people that loved ones going I guess on a Sunday morning they told me to pay respect to their loved ones that were killed, their heads chopped off, they died violently. And you know, I mean we're here to talk about it and I didn't know we'd get involved here but I will say this that if the news wasn't fake like NBC which is fake news. Totally. One of the worst. ABC, NBC, CBS. Horrible. But if they weren't fake news, like this jerk that we have here. If we had real reporters, they'd be covering it. But the fake news in this country doesn't talk about that. They don't want to talk about it. But now they have to talk about it. But they won't. This won't even be a subject. They'll have him talking about why did a country give a free... think of this. Why did a country give an airplane to the United States Air Force? Okay. The United States, not to me, to the United States Air Force so they could help us out because we need an Air Force One until our... That's Air Force One. It's being built. Two of them being built. But Boeing's a little bit late, unfortunately. So, why did they give us a plane to the United States Air Force? That's what that idiot talks about after viewing a thing where thousands of people are dead. I'm sorry. I don't have a plane to give you. I would... I wish you did. I take it. I would take it. If your country offered the United States Air Force a plane, I would take it.
Okay. But coming back to this issue which I really would like us to talk about and talk about it very calmly. We were taught by Nelson Mandela that whenever there are problems, people need to sit down around a table and talk about them. Well, there... and this is precisely what we would also like to talk about including of course trade matters, investment matters. So the issues that concern you as the United States, those are all recent and those are all deaths. Yeah. In many ways, I mean one should say you are a partner of South Africa and you are raising concerns and these are concerns that we are willing to talk to you about.
Let me just add quickly, you know, the criminality that we are experiencing in our country needs quite a lot of technological capability and in one of our areas in South Africa, we're using US technology which is able to in many ways identify where shootings are happening and all that. And I'd like to talk about that because there is support that we can get from you and the United States to help us deal with all these acts of criminality. And that is what I believe partnership is all about. And we are here as a partner so that we can help each other whenever there are challenges. So I'd like us to discuss it and of course outside of the media so that we sit down and have a really good discussion that will lead to good outcomes.
Are there any other punitive measures that could be in place should you not be satisfied that South Africa is fixing some of the very bad things that you tweeted are happening?
Well, there are a lot of bad things happening in, you know, many countries, but this in particular has been very, very bad. Very bad. And because of, you know, we're going to have the whole world watching in another short period of time because you have the G20 and that's a big deal. And it seems, it seems like... I mean, I want you to look good. I don't want you to look bad. Very good. But you... we have hundreds of people, thousands of people trying to come into our country because they feel they're going to be killed and their land is going to be confiscated. And you do have laws that were passed that gives you the right to confiscate land for no payment. You can take away land for no payment.
I want to clarify that because we have a constitution. Our constitution guarantees and protects the sanctity of tenure of land ownership and that constitution protects all South Africans with regard to land ownership. However, we do say because we've got to deal with the past, the government and as your government also has the right to expropriate land for public use and you're doing that and we've never really gotten underway with that and we are going to be doing that.
You're taking... you're taking people's land away.
We have not from them. We have...
And those people in many cases are being executed. They're being executed and they happen to be white and most of them happen to be farmers. And that's a tough situation. I don't know how you explain that. How do you explain that? They're taking people's land away and in many cases those people are being executed and in many cases it's not the government that's people that kill them and then take their land and nothing happens to them. But we have thousands of people that want to come into our country. They're also going to Australia in a smaller number, but we have thousands of people that want to come into our country and they're white farmers and they feel that they're going to die in South Africa and it's a bad thing. Yeah.
G20. What can South Africa do? What concessions would you like to see them make to improve relations with the United States? Then I have one more for President Ramaphosa afterwards.
Well, you know, we just spoke about... I got them a very, very complex machine, 150 of them and I was asked by the president if it could help and I did that and you know I have great feeling for all countries. I look, I deal with all countries. But I have a great feeling for South Africa because I have friends. I have a couple of friends, a few friends here today. I have many friends from South Africa but many of those friends are... they can't go back. I have Elon is from South Africa. I don't want to get Elon involved. That's all I have to do. Get him into another thing. But Elon happens to be from South Africa. This is what Elon wanted. He actually came here on a different subject. Sending rockets to Mars. Okay. He likes that better. He likes that subject better. That's right. But Elon is from South Africa and I don't want to talk to him about that. I don't think it's fair to him. But I will say that people are fleeing South Africa for their own safety. Their land is being confiscated and in many cases they're being killed. And that scene of you see how many crosses they have. Those crosses that's a dead person in every one of them. And those trucks or cars are paying their respects to all of those dead people on a Sunday morning. That's a rough... that's a rough thing to explain away.
And the problem we have and the way you know a correct and a fair media exposes things, but we have a very corrupt media. They won't even report this. If this were the other way around, it would be the biggest story. Now I will say apartheid terrible that was the biggest that was reported all the time. This is sort of the opposite of apartheid. What's happening now is never reported. Nobody knows about it. All we know is we're being inundated with people with white farmers from South Africa. And it's a big problem. Marco Rubio was telling me he's never seen anything like it. The numbers of people that want to leave South Africa because they feel they're going to be dead very soon. Yes.
Brian, go. If I could just ask you a question. 72% of farmers in your country are white. If they flee, do you feel that maybe the economy could collapse? You may not have a gap to fill in those people that need to replace those farmers.
You know, I'd like my Minister of Agriculture, who is white, who comes from an opposition party to mine, who's joined my government and my invitation to address some this very issue, including the question that you've just raised, John.
Thank you very much, Mr. President. Mr. President, thank you for welcoming us to the White House. I would say we have a rural safety problem in the South. I don't think anyone wants to candy coat that and it requires a lot of effort to get on top of it. It's going to require more policing resources. It's going to require different strategy to be able to deal with it. But certainly the majority of South Africa's commercial and small holder farmers really do want to stay in South Africa and make it work. And I've just come from the largest agricultural show in the southern hemisphere with organized agriculture and farmers and the majority of them want to stay. But they too there have a memorial to those who've died as a result of farm attacks. And as the Minister of Agriculture, it is something that I'm particularly exercised with my colleagues at police and my colleagues in the justice cluster to stop making farm attacks and stock theft a priority crime and it affects all farmers in South Africa. Particularly stock theft has a disproportionate effect on smaller black farmers. I also want to just say this that the two individuals that are in that video that you've seen are both leaders of opposition minority parties in South Africa in uMkhonto weSizwe under Mr. Zuma and the Economic Freedom Fighters under Mr. Malema. Now the reason that my party the Democratic Alliance which has been an opposition party for over 30 years chose to join hands with Mr. Ramaphosa's party was precisely to keep those people out of power. We cannot have those people sitting in the Union Buildings making decisions. And that is why after 30 years of us exchanging barbs across the floor in parliament and trying to get one over on each other, we've decided to join hands precisely to keep that lot out of government because the day they get in to the doors of the Union Buildings in South Africa or control of our parliament, that's what you're going to see. And that is why this government working together needs the support of our allies around the world so that we can strengthen our hand, grow our economy and shut the door forever on that rabble getting through the doors of the Union Buildings because then South Africa's future will be...
So you denounce that type of language in the video that you saw.
Oh yes, we've always done so. As government, as my own party, we are completely opposed to that. We in 1955 adopted a document which said South Africa belongs to all who live in it.
But why wouldn't you arrest that man? That man said kill the white farmers. Kill the white farmers. And then he danced and he's dancing, dancing and it's kill the white farmers. I think I'm not sure but I think if somebody got up in parliament and started saying kill a certain group of people he would be arrested very quickly. That man is going all over South Africa and that's not a small party. That was a stadium that holds a hundred thousand people and I hardly saw an empty seat. That's a lot of people. That's a lot of representation. And those crosses, we have dead white people, dead white farmers mostly. And you take a look at Australia, they're being inundated and we're being inundated with people that want to get out and their farm is valueless. It's valueless and they just want to get out with their life and this is a very serious situation. And if we had a real news or real press or media, we don't have that because they won't talk about this because they're all guys like that idiot. But if we had a real press, it would be exposed. And you know, the beauty of exposing it is it's like a cleansing action. When it gets exposed, it'll get fixed. That's when it'll get fixed. But people don't talk about it. And I'll tell you who's talking about the thousands of people that are fleeing South Africa right now.
We discussed US aid and the devastating impact the cuts are having across the African continent.
Yeah, it's devastating and hopefully a lot of people are going to start spending a lot of money. And I've talked to other nations. We want them to chip in and spend money too. And we've spent a lot and it's a tremendous problem going on in many countries. A lot of problems going on. The United States always gets the request for money. Nobody else helps. As you know, Europe doesn't help. Europe hasn't given anything. All they do is sue our companies. You know, they sue Apple and they sue all of our companies. Apple had to pay 17 billion dollars on a nonsense lawsuit. Very unfair. But we're going to always be there to help the...
If this Afrikaner resettlement issue is resolved. You're going to go into a room after this. You guys are going to talk. If it is resolved, what is the potential for the future looking relationships?
Fantastic. It's got to be resolved. It should be resolved. It's... I mean it's a little bit bad when you see a stadium with 100,000 people in it because that means it's more than just a little movement. It's a pretty big movement in South Africa. So, it has to be resolved. It'll be the end of the country if it's not. The potential for the relationship moving forward. I hope so. That's why I'm here. November. I mean, I'm not here for my health. I'm here to see what it means. No, I'd like to see... I have friends. I can tell you Ernie and Retief Goosen, they feel so strongly they wanted to be here on behalf of South Africa, not on behalf of me. And you know, they said, 'Can we be here for this?' because they love the country. Ernie, do you guys want to say a couple of words or I don't... I hate to put you in this... This is tougher than sinking a three-footer.
Three-footers. They have... and they've sank many three-footers. Thank you, Mr. President, and thanks for the honor of being here. We've known each other a long time. We have spoken. You know, we proud South Africans. I still have my South African passport. We travel with this passport, you know, and I got my visa here. So, you know, but we want to see things get better in our home country. That's the bottom line. It's been 35 years since the transition. President Ramaphosa was right in the middle of the transition time in 1990 and before that. So it's been 35 years of ANC government. And I know there's a lot of anger, you know, through the transition. There's always a lot of stuff happening in the apartheid days. You know, we grew up in the apartheid era. But I don't think two wrongs makes a right. You know, President Mandela when he came out of prison for all that time didn't come out with hatred, you know, and really unified our nation through sport, you know, we won the Rugby World Cup in '95, four times. We won the African Nations Cup, our soccer, you know, we won some majors as golfers and so forth. So what I'm trying to say is, you know, this has been a long time coming. That's why we really wanted to meet you, meet the administration and see our way forward because we still want to see our country flourish. You know, we got some great things going on. Business is getting involved with government. Farming, farmers are getting involved in local municipalities trying to rebuild some of the infrastructure that's been decaying for a long time. So there's a lot of coexistence going on and help from a lot of areas but we need... I feel we need the US to push this thing through. We've got a great ally we can have. The US has always been an ally of South Africa for a very long time. Even in the days of the war, you know, up in Angola, you know, you guys helped us. So, very important for us to have your support and get the change we need.
Well, did you do that? Well, he might have done that even better than he plays golf, which is almost impossible. Johan, please.
Sorry, Mr. President. If you had to wind all of those things properly, you will see I'm the biggest target of that rabble rouser, number one for over 10 years, Mr. Malema. In fact, the first time I met him, he was in the youth league with that gentleman and look how he's changed, right? We have too many deaths, but it's across the board. It's not only white farmers, it's across the board. And we need technological help. We need Starlink at every little police station. We need drones. I actually got drones donated for the peace parks to stop elephant and poaching and his predecessor stopped the importation because he said the United States would spy on us. I mean you as basics the ridicule. So if we can... if you can help us. Remember sir, you and I lived in New York in the '70s. We never thought New York could be what it became. Two commissioners, a tough mayor. We need your help to stop this awful killing. But it's across the board. Ernie is right now building a house in George. I'm building three cottages for my grandchildren on a farm outside. I often go to bed without locking the door and we have a serious problem with illegal aliens who stream across the border. And if you really look at our statistics, a lot of these murders, firstly, it's unemployment and illegal aliens. And then I met Vice President Pence many years ago, the Charlie Rose show. My wife loved the book. And she reminded me this morning that you emphasized the devastation that occurs when big companies leave towns and cities and there's a culture of dependency that develops. I remember you discussing it. Now that's our problem. If we don't get our economy to grow, the culture of dependency and the lawlessness will increase. I've again been against the ANC all my life and I'm their number one target. Please just Google my name and Malema. You'll see it, sir. Yeah. He marched on the farm. But the crime is bad. The crime is terrible, sir. But Mr. Christian Nason won't admit to it, but he runs the Western Cape where I live. And the biggest murder rate is in the Cape Flats. Gangs. We've got gang warfare like your MS-13, whatever these guys. We've got equivalents there, but we need your help, sir, and we need Elon's technology.
Well, one of the real areas of support is really in investments. We've got to grow our economy because through growing the economy, we're then able to create more jobs because crime really thrives where there is inequality and unemployment. And that is one of the reasons that has brought us here to improve our investment relations, our trade relations, so that we can preserve the number of jobs that your companies have created in South Africa. By virtue of what we export to you, we are able to create up to 500,000 jobs in the auto industry, in the agricultural industry, and a number of other industries. Mining where we export things to you and we also know that as South African companies invest here you are also able to create jobs so it's a mutually beneficial relationship so our main real reason for being here is to foster trade and investment so that we are able to grow our economy, your support and so that we're also able to address all these societal problems because criminality thrives when people are unemployed when they have no other hope to eke out a living. So that is what we need to resolve and your support, your partnership with us is what is really going to give us a strong, strong capability to move forward.
Excuse me. You have anything to say? I mean I don't want to leave you out. You know the guy won three or four majors.
Three or four? No, I need two. Two.
That's a lot. By the way, two is a lot. A lot of tournaments you won, too. Do you have anything to say?
Yeah, thank you, Mr. President. President Ramaphosa. I grew up in an area in South Africa that is a farmland area, Polokwane, and there is some issues up there. Obviously, my dad was a property developer as well as a part-time farmer. And yeah, some of these buddy farmers got killed. The farm is still going. My brothers run it, but it's a constant battle with farms trying to get... they're trying to burn the farms down to chase you away. So, it is a concern to try and make a living as a farmer. And at the end, you know, without farmers, there's no food on the plate. So, we need the farmers to produce the food.
He wouldn't do it. He wouldn't even want to do what you're doing. They love farming. They don't want to leave. But it's a struggle. Yeah. And you know, food and fresh water is the most important thing in life. You know, without those two things, you can't survive. How is the water there?
The water's great, obviously. All the water comes out of a borehole out of ground for us down there. But yeah, it is a battle to get the water out sometimes when all the equipment gets stolen all the time that you're trying to get.
Does your family and your brother do they feel safe on the farm?
They live behind electric fences, you know, try and be at night safe. But it is constant whenever you leave that something could happen and you know both of them has been attacked in their houses. My mom's been attacked in the house when she was 80. So it is difficult. But you know the guys live a great life despite everything going on.
President Trump, I brought along the president of the largest trade union in our country, Ziggy Solosi, because she leads many, many workers, more than one million, one and a two million workers. And maybe we should give her a chance to say something because she's come all the way to join us.
Thank you very much, President Trump for having us and President for extending the invitation to us as organized labor and I must say that we are here to support the initiative that has been made by our government with business of course as organized labor we've been coming to Washington on the AGOA trade relations in the previous regime and I think at the center of it all for me it is exactly what Mr. Rupert have said the importance of us growing the economy. We have always emphasized when we were here and kept on coming and negotiating on AGOA that the 600 US companies that are based in South Africa as you said President Ramaphosa 500,000 jobs will be wiped out we need more foreign direct investment in our country. We are not just talking about those that will lose employment but we are talking about over 40% of people that are unemployed that have no hope of ever finding job and we think that correctly as they have said that we need to deal with the issue of porous borders in our country so that everyone that comes in is documented. We also need to and I would have love thought that the minister would address the issue of land expropriation and how the policy works in South Africa. Recently president as you were preparing to come here on the news in I think was on there was handover of farms and white farmers were saying we are donating the land but also there's a willing buyer willing seller in South Africa. So there is no expropriation without compensation but it is a willing buyer willing seller and that white farmer was even saying president that the government is even paying more in buying the land than what the land is worth of and I think those are the realities president that we must say that we need to address of course but also the importance of agriculture linked to our goal. Yeah, people rely on it and I think as Retief said for survival and living but lastly for me president is also the issue of the crime statistics. There is no doubt about it that we are a violent nation you know for a number of reasons and we're not condoning anything. But also if you go into the rural areas where black majority are, you would see women, elderly being raped, being killed, being murdered. And these are black elderly women that would be found throat slits, raped multiple times and all of that. And the problem in South Africa, it is not necessarily about race, but it is about crime. And we think that we are here to say how do we both nations work together to reset to really talk about investment but also help us in how we can have the technology and everything that is needed president to really address the levels of crime that we have in our country. Thank you very much.
Genocide. Genocide is a very long word. I'm wondering if you've made up your mind as to whether you believe genocide is occurring in South Africa or you still doubt and if you have made up your mind why invite President Ramaphosa here today.
Well, I haven't made up my mind. I hate to see it from the standpoint of South Africa, but also, you know, I'm trying to save lives. I'm working with Russia and Ukraine. I don't have to do that. It's not our war. It was started by other people. Was helped along by our past administration. It would have never happened if I were president. But I'm trying to save lives no matter where. Rwanda, I have nothing to do with Rwanda and the Congo, but I felt I had a very talented person in this administration and I sent him there and he did an unbelievable job, I think. I mean, we're going to find out, but he's done the hardest part of the job. It should happen. If I can save lives, I want to save the lives. If it's in Africa, that's great. If it's in Europe, if it's wherever it may be. And it's a very small investment to do, believe me, compared to what the consequences are. So I hope we can do something. Look, I have so many friends. These two men, I have great admiration for them because I know what they do for a living. And that's a very hard living. Going from city to city, from country to country, and hitting a ball 350 yards like they do. And better than you and I and getting the ball in the hole. It's a very tough with lots of people watching, right? It's a very tough living and you know they're champions. I respect champions and I respect very much and I think the country is very lucky. They really wanted to be here. That's true. They could be elsewhere. They could be on a beautiful fairway someplace and they wanted to be here. Glad you brought them.
My name from Newsroom Africa in South Africa. How important is it for the United States to be at our G20 summit in November given the relationship between our two countries? You've just heard what has been said to you just now. Are you coming and are you preparing to come?
So without the United States, the G20, just like the G7 used to be the G8, but brilliantly they threw Russia out. Would have been a lot better if Russia was in. You know, a lot of people would say, 'Oh, that's not it.' Because if Russia was in, you probably wouldn't have this war. And if you had a different president, you wouldn't have the war either. But we have a G7. It's important that the United States is in both of them. I think without the United States, it's... I really believe it's not very important. It's not the same meaning.
As I said to President Trump, the US really originated the G20 and it's important that the United States continues to play a key role in the G20 and we are privileged to be the president of the G20 but we are even overjoyed that we are going to hand over to the United States who are the originators and for that reason I expect the United States to continue playing the leadership role in the G20 together with other countries and I've said when I initially spoke to President Trump on the phone I want you to come to South Africa for a state visit and I also want you to come and participate in the G20 and I want to gladly hand over to President Trump to take the leadership of the G20 forward in November.
Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you. They don't want to leave. I like everybody. Thank you. Good. Thank you. Thanks guys. Thank you. Golf is still doing great in South Africa and they have young players I hear coming up that are going to be very good. But it's an honor to have you here and my friend, it's an honor to have you. One of the greatest businessmen in South Africa and long beyond. Thank you for being here. It's a very, very great honor. Appreciate it. So we're going to be discussing certain things. As you know, we have the G20 is going to South Africa. When is that going to be? In November. In November. And thereafter, I hand over to you. And yes, we have it next year. You originated the G20. So, I'll hand over the baton to you and then you lead the G20. We're going to have it. We're going to have it the following year. Yeah. So, we'll be discussing many things and some of the things you've been reading about in the papers and the media and I would say that look the president is a truly respected man in many, many circles and in some circles he's considered a little controversial but we're going to be discussing some of the things that are taking place in South Africa and see if we can help and we want to help and we've had a long relationship with South Africa I have because indirectly I have so many friends that live there I have a lot of friends I mean these famous guys, but I have a lot of friends that live there that are tremendous people and we'll be discussing that. We'll have a nice conversation and I really appreciate that you guys came along. It really helps us in our thought process. But it is a great honor to have you and I appreciate you called you. He called I don't know where he got my number but I picked up he said I want to come over and see you and that was my honor and thank you very much for being here.
You're most welcome. Most welcome. Well, thank you very much for welcoming us to this reformed White House. I've been here before and it looks really fantastic. I must congratulate you. Thank you. But I also thank you for allowing our delegation. This is a very mixed delegation that you've got. We've got people from government, my ministers. I've got someone from the trade union movement who you really collaborate with and from business as well and our sporting legends. When I spoke to you, you said yes, come along and bring Gary Player, bring Ernie Els and Retief Goosen. But wishes us luck in this discussion with you. So, it's a real joy and I'd also like to thank you for allowing your people to start discussions with us at the trade level. I mean, we are essentially here to reset the relationship between the United States and South Africa. We are long-standing partners in many, many ways. We've collaborated in many fields in space issues, in energy, and in trade. And we therefore need to reset that particularly in the light of some of the announcements that you made on trade and investment. So we want to advance more trade between the two of us, our two countries and our people now have been empowered by yourself and by myself to start engaging and we hope that we will be able to fuel that engagement during our talks. And we also want to discuss issues that have to do with how we promote further investments in both countries. We've got about 22 companies from South Africa that have invested in the US that's creating a number of jobs and similarly you've got almost 600 companies that have invested in South Africa and some of them have been in South Africa for more than a hundred years. That's true. So our links are really long-lasting and we would like to recalibrate those relations between our two countries and discuss a whole range of issues geopolitical the work that you're doing to bring peace around the world in Ukraine and in the Middle East. So we value that and we are also a great contributor to peace processes that are going on around the world and of course we want to discuss how we can support each other. You are a much bigger economy than we are. We're just a tiny economy but we rely on each other on a number of issues. We've got critical minerals that you want to fuel the growth of your own economy and re-industrialize. So we have that on offer including rare earth minerals. So all that combination of opportunity and the products that we buy from you as well as what we sell to you I believe makes up a really good and powerful relationship which we need to strengthen which we need to engender and that is really what has brought us here and we are really privileged to have great South Africans in the mix as you said you'd like to see them as well. Brought you a really fantastic golf book weighs 14 kg.
And it showcases the golf courses in our country. Johan Rupert wrote a preface so did Ernie. And I want to showcase our golf courses. You might remember when I spoke to you and we spoke about golf, you said I should start practicing and I've started practicing, president. So I'm ready. But let me end just the introductory remarks by thanking you. You may not recall that five years ago I spoke to you during the COVID period, right? And it was at a time when the whole world was going through a really cathartic moment, right? And we asked for assistance and you were able to assist us with respirators. Respirators and you kept to your word and you delivered respirators to us. We didn't have as many in our country and it really helped to deal... to help us deal with COVID. So I'm here also to say thank you and to thank the people of America for having helped us during a really difficult time being the small economy that we are. We needed help from around the world and you were there to provide that. So thank you very much.
Remember the call? Yeah. We said 150 respirators. We became the respirator king. We started making them. Nobody had them. We had very few of them. That's right. But they were very helpful. What we said 150 and I appreciated the letter you wrote me a letter that's right thank I appreciate that very much thank you very much for that it really touched my heart after I spoke to you and you delivered so great honor thank you very much.
Any questions please. Mr. President, you welcome white Afrikaner refugees here. Can you explain to Americans why it's appropriate to welcome white Afrikaners here when other refugees like Afghans, Venezuelans, Haitians have all had their protective status revoked.
Well, this is a group NBC that is truly fake news. They ask a lot of questions in a very pointed way. They're not questions, their statements. We've had tremendous complaints about Africa, about other countries too, from people. They say there's a lot of bad things going on in Africa, and that's what we're going to be discussing today. When you say we don't take others, all you have to do is take a look at the southern border. We let 21 million people come through our border totally unchecked, totally unvetted. They came from all over the world. In many cases, they're criminals. They come from prisons. They come from mental institutions. They come from street gangs. They're drug dealers. So don't say that we didn't take them. We're taking them. We're trying to get them out as fast as we can. And we're doing record business on that. And we just won a big case where we're allowed to send back hundreds of criminals to Venezuela. Just won that today in the Supreme Court. I'm happy to hear. But we do have a lot of people are very concerned with regard to South Africa and that's really the purpose of the meeting and we'll see how that turns out. But we have many people that feel they're being persecuted and they're coming to the United States. So we take from many, many locations if we feel there's persecution or genocide going on and we had a lot of people I must tell you Mr. President, we have had a tremendous number of people especially since they've seen this generally they're white farmers and they're fleeing South Africa and it's a very sad thing to see but I hope we can have an explanation of that because I know you don't want that and it's a kind of a different meeting normally we have meetings we talk about trade and we'll be talking about trade and other things but that certainly will be a subject that comes up. Yep.
Yes, please. Thank you very much. I'd like to get your thoughts on Letitia James. Director Patel, according to him, Letitia James says that the alleged mortgage fraud was simply a mistake. Want to get your thoughts on that. She put down that her father was her husband in the word. And this is very similar to I guess the false attacks they have on...
Well, I don't know what it is currently, but Letitia James, who's the attorney general of New York State, it seemed I'm not involved in that at all. I know it's being handled by various groups, I guess, but it's major fraud, mortgage documents and fraudulent everything. I think she said the father was her husband, which she had to have a husband or so she chose her father and she put it down. And she said she lived in Virginia yet she's the New York state attorney general and she did that for tax reasons so she could take advantage of taxes. And she had the wrong number of units. She had a much different number which wouldn't have allowed her to qualify and scam the government. So, I don't know. I think she's very bad for New York, but I really don't know too much about it. But I appreciate the question. Thank you very much.
Yes, Mr. President. What would it take for you to be convinced that there's no genocide, please? Thank you, Mr. President. So May 25th will be the celebration of Africa Day which pretty much a lot of celebration will be taking place around the world including here in the United States. What is your message to the entire African continent, African people in this important location?
Well, I want to see peace and I want to see happiness. I want to see health and you know you have incredible land. There's tremendous value. A lot of countries don't have that value in the land to value you have. You know, we have a situation. I think you probably heard about it. We've done through some very talented people helped settle a war that's been raging for years. Rwanda and the Congo. And I think we've done it. Believe it or not, I think we've done it. And could you just say a few words about that, my friend?
Yes. A couple of weeks ago we signed, they signed, the two parties signed a declaration of principle in which they've agreed on the way forward and they have both submitted draft peace agreements and we have put together one that incorporates both of their suggestions and we've given it to them. So we're in the process of finalizing, looking very good.
No, we have to thank you for even those efforts because the African continent, particularly SADC, our Southern African Development Community, has for years been seeking to foster peace in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. So all efforts including those from outside the continent and inside the continent are really worthwhile. We are removing our troops from there so that peace can then prevail in that whole area and we hope that with the support of the international community we will really have peace in that area. It's so vital, so important for the whole region.
Well, we sent our people there and I think we did a very good job. I said it by my friend and that was great. That was great. I mean, I'm just hearing phenomenal reports because all I'm hearing is death. Death and they're chopping heads off and it sounds horrible over there and it was really brave of you to go there and I really appreciate it and it looks like we have something very, very substantial. We also talked about trade with them in terms of rare earth and all but really more for the... it's like if you take a look at what we just did with Pakistan and India we settled that whole and I think I settled it through trade. We're doing a big deal with India. We're doing a big deal with Pakistan and I said what are you guys doing? You know, somebody had to be the last one to shoot. But the shooting was getting worse and worse, bigger and bigger, deeper and deeper into the countries and we spoke to him and I think we, you know, I hate to say we got it settled and then two days later something happens and they say it's Trump's fault but Pakistan has got some excellent people and some really good great leader and India is my friend Modi, Modi and he's a mutual friend. Yeah, he's a great guy and I called them both and we just did something good. We were trying to settle Russia Ukraine. You spoke with President Putin for two and a half hours the day before yesterday. I think we made a lot of progress, but that's a bloodbath. 5,000 people are being killed a week. 5,000 soldiers a week, not including people in cities and towns that are also being killed. So, we're trying to help. And it doesn't affect us. It's not our people. It's not our soldiers. It's Ukraine and it's Russia. But if we can save 5,000 souls, we'll do it. You know, pretty good at it. But it's a bad situation. That is a really bad situation.
Well, you recall when President Zelensky was coming to South Africa, that's when I spoke to you. That's right. We both agreed that we need to push the peace message so that there can really be peace. And we've been involved in the Ukraine Russia conflict for quite a while through my minister of state security here. We've been dealing with them the exchange of children who were taken away going through names and addresses and all that. So we've been invested in that whole process as well and the moves that you are making are fully supported by us because we would like to see the end of that war.
That's true. I called Zelensky and they said he's in South Africa. I said what the hell is he doing in South Africa? That's a strange one. He's trying to make peace.
But we were lucky because we had the great Nelson Mandela who taught us how to create peace, to make peace. So we were imparting some of those lessons to him, some of those learnings and I specifically mentioned to him that this is how Nelson Mandela taught us that when you want to have peace in a country, do it on an unconditional basis and sit down and talk. And that's precisely what I'm sure he's going to hear.
Well, we're going to see what happens with that one. It's a lot of, there's a lot of hatred. There's a lot of death. It's a bloodbath. It is. I get the, unfortunately I get the satellite pictures of that field, of that killing field. You never saw anything like it in your life. It's horrible. It's a horrible thing that it goes on. But I think we've made big progress.
Thank you, Mr. President. No, no, not you. Right here. He's from South Africa. Go ahead, please.
What are you expecting on the ICJ? Are you expecting South Africa to drop that? Is that what you're trying to... on which case? The International Criminal Justice... I don't expect anything to be honest. I really don't. I don't know. It's... they've got a case, there's a lot of anger there. Tremendous anger. I don't expect anything. We'll see what happens. We'll have a ruling and who knows what the ruling is going to mean.
Yeah. On that subject of Gaza, Mr. President, are you going to be speaking to Prime Minister Netanyahu about Israel's renewed offensive? There's a lot of concern from European countries. The Pope has expressed concern. Are you going to be asking Prime Minister Netanyahu to tone down the offensive in Gaza to let more in?
Was that a question or a statement? You never change.
President, what will it take for you to be convinced that there's no white genocide in South Africa?
Well, I can answer that for the president. It's for him. No, seriously. I'd rather have him answer. Yeah, I'd rather answer that. It will be my president will respond to you. Thank you, Mr. President. It will take President Trump listening to the voices of South Africans, some of whom are his good friends, like those who are here. When we have talks between us on the quiet around a quiet table, it will take President Trump to listen to them. I'm not going to be repeating what I've been saying. I would say if there was Afrikaner farmer genocide, I can bet you these three gentlemen would not be here, including my minister of agriculture. He would not be with me. So it'll take him, President Trump listening to their stories, to their perspective. That is the answer to your question. But Mr. President, I must say we have...
No, no, wait. We have thousands of stories talking about it and we have documentaries, we have news stories. And then... Is Natalie here? Somebody here to turn that I could show you a couple of things and I would... I just, I have to, it has to be responded to. Sure. Let me see the articles please if you would and turn... Excuse me. Turn the lights down. Turn the lights down and just put this on. It's right behind you.
Johan, there's nothing this parliament can do. With or without you, people are going to occupy land. We require no permission from you, from the president, from no one. We don't care. We can do whatever you want to do. Who are you to tell us whether we can occupy land or not? We are going to occupy land. South Africa occupy land. That's who we are.
What can we do by this party? Never be scared to kill a revolution. Demand that at some point there must be killing because the killing is part of a revolutionary act to kill the farmer. Kill the poor, the farmer.
Former the mayor of Gqeberha in PE is a white man. So these people when you want to go after a white man they feel a terrible pain because you have touched a white man. Not because amaMpondo will not be touched, they will be touched. But you are standing with this whiteness, you are cutting the throat of whiteness. So the master, the farmer, the farmer to kill the poor, the farmer. Kill the poor, the farmer.
I don't know what's going to happen in the future. I'm saying to you was not called for the killing of white people. At least for now. I can't see the future.
Yeah. I mean, you'd understand somebody watching that especially gets shared on Twitter freak out. It sounds like a motorcycle.
Who will expropriate land without compensation whether they like it or not. If they object they can seek refugee in America.
Now this is very bad. These are burial sites right here. Burial sites over a thousand of white farmers and those cars are lined up to pay love on a Sunday morning. Each one of those white things you see is a cross and there's approximately a thousand of them. They're all white farmers, the family of white farmers. And those cars aren't driving. They're stopped there to pay respects to their family member who was killed. And it's a terrible sight. I've never seen anything like it. Both sides of the road you have crosses. Those people are all killed.
Have they told you where that is, Mr. President?
No, I'd like to know where that is because this I've never seen. I don't... Okay. I mean, it's in South Africa. That's where we need to find out.
Okay, Mr. President, the Pentagon announced that it would be accepting a Qatari jet to be used as Air Force One.
What are you talking about? You know, what are you talking about? You know, you to get out of here. What does this have to do with the Qatar jet? They're giving the United States Air Force a jet. Okay. And it's a great thing. We're talking about a lot of other things. It's NBC trying to get off the subject of what you just saw. You are a real, you know, you're a terrible reporter. Number one, you don't have what it takes to be a reporter. You're not smart enough. But for you to go on to a subject about a jet that was given to the United States Air Force, which is a very nice thing, they also gave 5.1 trillion dollars worth of investment. In addition to the jet, go back, you ought to go back to your studio at NBC because Brian Roberts and the people that run that place, they ought to be investigated. They are so terrible the way you run that network and you're a disgrace. No more questions from you. Go ahead.
Response. Go ahead. Talk about that. His name is Peter something. He's a terrible reporter.
Quiet. Quiet. My question. Let's go. Thank you so much, President Trump. Adam from South Africa. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. What would you like President Ramaphosa to do about the situation that we've just seen on the screen?
I don't know. Or look, these are articles over the last few days. Death of people. Death, horrible death. Death. I don't know, you know, to pick anyone. White South Africans are fleeing because of the violence and racist laws and this is all, I mean, I'll give these to you. So when you say what would I like to do? I don't know what to do. Look at this. White South African couples say that they were attacked violently. And President Trump, when will you go and see for yourself if it isn't? Well, I could do that. Look, here's burial sites all over the place. They're all, these are all white farmers that are being buried. And he asks about a jet that was given. You ought to be ashamed of yourself. You know, you're so bad. You're such a bad reporter.
Mr. President, Mr. President, this is one after another. This family was wiped out. I just, I'm just looking... Can we get off the reaction to those videos, Mr. President?
Well, I think it's, I think the videos are so... No, no. When you look at the videos, I mean, how does it get worse? And these are people that are officials and they're saying that kill the white farmer and take their land. That's what I'm... And I have other friends in South Africa. I have people that left. One in particular that says it's, you can't go there. He said they want to take your land. They take your land and they kill you. It's okay. And they say it's okay to do. Now we're going to talk about it. But this is a tremendous look. This is story recent. These are all people that recently got killed. Yeah. And I don't know how it can get any worse. These are... And you know the man that you saw, the men that you saw, the people that you saw in that movie, those are officials. Those are people that were in office. They had one march. They had a dance in your parliament, whatever you may call it, legislature.
Let me clarify that. Yeah, please let me clarify that because what you saw, the speeches that were being made, one, that is not government policy. We have a multi-party democracy in South Africa that allows people to express themselves, political parties to adhere to various policies and in many cases or in some cases those policies do not go along with government policy. Our government policy is completely, completely against what he was saying even in the parliament and they are a small minority party which is allowed to exist in terms of our constitution.
But you do allow them to take land. No, no, no, you do allow them to take land. Nobody can take... when they take the land they kill the white farmer and when they kill the white farmer nothing happens to them.
No, there is... nothing happens to them. There is criminality in our country. People who do get killed unfortunately through criminal activity are not only white people. Majority of them are black people. And we have now...
Black. The farmers are not black. I don't say that's good or bad, but the farmers are not black. And the people that are being killed in large numbers and you saw all those grave sites and those are people that loved ones going I guess on a Sunday morning they told me to pay respect to their loved ones that were killed, their heads chopped off, they died violently. And you know, I mean, we're here to talk about it and I didn't know we'd get involved here but I will say this that if the news wasn't fake like NBC which is fake news. Totally. One of the worst. ABC, NBC, CBS, horrible. But if they weren't fake news, like this jerk that we have here, if we had real reporters, they'd be covering it. But the fake news in this country doesn't talk about that. They don't want to talk about it. But now they have to talk about it. But they won't. This won't even be a subject. They'll have him talking about why did a country give a free... Think of this. Why did a country give an airplane to the United States Air Force? Okay, the United States, not to me, to the United States Air Force so they could help us out because we need an Air Force One until our... that's Air Force One. It's being built. Two of them being built. But Boeing's a little bit late, unfortunately. So why did they give us a plane to the United States Air Force? That's what that idiot talks about after viewing a thing where thousands of people are dead. I'm sorry. I don't have a plane to give you. I wish you did. I take it. I would take it. If your country offered the United States Air Force a plane, I would take it. Okay.
But coming back to this issue, which I really would like us to talk about and talk about it very calmly. We were taught by Nelson Mandela that whenever there are problems, people need to sit down around a table and talk about them. And this is precisely what we would also like to talk about including of course trade matters, investment matters. So the issues that concern you as the United States, those are all... those are all deaths. Yeah. In many ways, I mean one should say you are a partner of South Africa and you are raising concerns and these are concerns that we are willing to talk to you about. Let me just add quickly, you know, the criminality that we are experiencing in our country needs quite a lot of technological capability and in one of our areas in South Africa, we're using US technology which is able to in many ways identify where shootings are happening and all that. And I'd like to talk about that because there is support that we can get from you and the United States to help us deal with all these acts of criminality. And that is what I believe partnership is all about. And we are here as a partner so that we can help each other whenever there are challenges. So I'd like us to discuss it and of course outside of the media so that we sit down and have a really good discussion that will lead to good outcomes.
Are there any other punitive measures that could be in place should you not be satisfied that South Africa is fixing some of the very bad things that you treated are happening?
Well, there are a lot of bad things happening in, you know, many countries, but this in particular has been very, very bad. Very bad. And because of, you know, we're going to have the whole world watching in another short period of time because you have the G20. And that's a big deal. And it seems like, I mean, I want you to look good. I don't want you to look bad. Very good. But we have hundreds of people, thousands of people trying to come into our country because they feel they're going to be killed and their land is going to be confiscated. And you do have laws that were passed that gives you the right to confiscate land for no payment. You can take away land for no payment.
But I want to clarify that because we have a constitution. Our constitution guarantees and protects the sanctity of tenure of land ownership. And that constitution protects all South Africans with regard to land ownership. However, we do say because we've got to deal with the past, the government and as your government also has the right to expropriate land for public use and you're doing that and we've never really gotten underway with that and we are going to be doing that.
You're taking people's land. We have not... from them. Come here. And those people in many cases are being executed. They're being executed and they happen to be white and most of them happen to be farmers. And that's a tough situation. I don't know how you explain that. How do you explain that? They're taking people's land away. And in many cases, those people are being executed. And in many cases, it's not the government that's suing. It's people that kill them and then take their land and nothing happens to them. But we have thousands of people that want to come into our country. They're also going to Australia in a smaller number, but we have thousands of people that want to come into our country and they're white farmers and they feel that they're going to die in South Africa and it's a bad thing. Yeah.
G20. What can South Africa do? What concessions would you like to see them make to improve relations with the United States? Then I have one more for President Ramaphosa afterwards.
