• US President Donald Trump and SA President Donald Trump held their much-talked-about meeting in the Oval Office yesterday.
• Trump blindsided Ramaphosa with a video of Julius Malema in Parliament using the “Kill the Boer” chant.
• Social media was divided following the meeting, with both Americans and South Africans claiming “victory”.

US President Donald Trump hosted another world leader and their delegates in the Oval Office this week, and for South Africans, it was an important meeting as it involved our own President Cyril Ramaphosa.

The Trump-Ramaphosa meeting, despite lasting for over an hour, centred around one topic in particular – the alleged “White Genocide” going on in South Africa – with the killing of white farmers and seizure of land based on race being a narrative that right-wing social media accounts have been pushing in recent months, and has since been taken up by the Trump administration.

This ultimately resulted in 49 Afrikaners headed to the US earlier this month under the guise of refugees who were fleeing alleged persecution in the country based on the colour of their skin.

This was one of a handful of talking points that the Trump-Ramaphosa meeting centred around, with the US President also blindsiding Ramaphosa with a video of EFF leader Julius Malema reenacting the “Kill the Boer” chant in Parliament.

Instances like these peppered the meeting, as Trump repeatedly noted not knowing what could be done to reverse the situation he saw unfolding in South Africa, all the while Ramaphosa tried to explain that the reports of a white genocide were best categorised as misinformation.

Ultimately, it does not seem like either party came out on top in the end, with neither doing nor even wanting to, convince the other of their position.

The rhetoric from the Trump-Ramaphosa meeting was echoed on social media too, as right-leaning accounts claimed Trump showed Ramaphosa “the truth”, while the left-leaning accounts tried to highlight the false narrative of white South Africans being persecuted in the country.

As for South Africans, a similar divide is seen on social media.

While Ramaphosa, and most of his delegation, did not come out of the meeting looking strong in the eyes of many South Africans, Cosatu president, Zingiswa Losi did, clarifying to Trump that South Africa’s issues are centred around crime and violence, not race.

Many online were of the opinion that Ramaphosa was not fully prepared for the meeting, or at the very least, did not want to engage in the same way Trump did. As such, any hopes of an explosive encounter like there were with Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, were scuppered.

The EFF, whose leader features in the video that Trump showed Ramaphosa in the Oval Office, also weighed in on the meeting, even going as far as to say it has “shaken the corridors of imperialism in Washington.”

The presence of Elon Musk during the Trump-Ramaphosa meeting did not do unnoticed online either, although the former DOGE figure did not speak at all despite being mentioned by Trump.

Following his meeting with Trump, Ramaphosa addressed the media, and emphasised that as he looks to negotiate with the US over improved trade, he will not be focusing on South Africa alone, but the entire African continent too.

With each side thinking they won, it remains to be seen what the true result of the meeting will be, and whether the US and South Africa can return to some semblance of political alignment. Either way, the G20 Summit in Johannesburg later in the year, will prove interesting.