Watch Trump and South Africa’s president in tense exchange during Oval Office ambush

Donald Trump confronted South Africa’s president over unsubstantiated claims of genocide against white farmers in South Africa in a tense Oval Office exchange on Wednesday (21 May).

The US president showed Cyril Ramaphosa copies of tabloid articles he claimed represented “thousands of stories” about “death, death, death.”

Mr Trump also asked for the lights to be dimmed to play a video showing an opposition leader chanting “Kill the Boer!” and what he claimed were burial sites of murdered white farmers.

The South Africans pushed back on the claims, emphasising that the government was against the opposition’s views and that the country has a rural crime problem that impacts everyone.