As the New York Times reports in an email this morning:
During a fraught White House meeting with a stunned President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa, President Trump showed a video and waved around printouts of what he said was evidence of racial persecution of white South Africans, including killings.
Quite appropriately, President Ramaphosa fought back, including by apologising for not having a plane to offer the USA.
There is no evidence of these killings.
Meanwhile, in the next item in the same email, the NYT reports:
Three days after Israel said it had eased its blockade of Gaza to let aid trucks in, very little — if any — of the urgently needed food, fuel and medicine appeared to have reached Palestinians.
A panel of U.N.-backed experts warned this month that Gazans were at “critical risk of famine,” with tens of thousands of children facing acute malnutrition. Israel dismissed the report.
Trump is not mentioning it. He is still, very clearly, Netanyahu's best friend.
We have a bigot, a racist, a supporter of genocide, and a person dedicated to ending the rule of law in the White House.
When are the politicians of the world going to say that, or is this the biggest unknown known of all, the ultimate truth that they cannot bring themselves to address?
Thanks for reading this post.
You can share this post on social media of your choice by clicking these icons:
There are links to this blog's glossary in the above post that explain technical terms used in it. Follow them for more explanations.
You can subscribe to this blog's daily email here.
And if you would like to support this blog you can, here:
Buy me a coffee!
Me, me ,me ,me meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
That’s what it is about. A weak ego, & the necessity to be in the news all the time (& thus talked about).
South Africa? Could have been “the sexual abuse of penguins & their roasting in New Zealand” ….. anything to stay in the news.
Which leaves Europe/EU, Russia, Ukraine and Israel. The politicos know the outlines of what to do. They hesitate, given that they are dealing with a man-baby.
Me? I’d close the straits – Denmark – Sweden all Russia outbound/inbound stopped. Israel: Stop all flights, stop all contact of any sort. Expell all israeli citizens.
Ukraine: give them all the Russian assets held in Europe (with suitable moinitoring). All are within the gift of the EU & Man-baby could do nothing.
The specific charge was that of genocide against the white south Africans.
It was South Africa that took Israel to the International Court of Justice. Blinken, the US Secretary of State thought it a wrong move. Foreign Secretary Cameron thought it not useful. However, the Court said there was a danger of genocide.
It looks to me that the motivation for this Oval office ambush was to make South look like hypocrites and deflect attention from the war crimes which continue in Gaza.
It won’t work.
Agreed
It is the same tactic as was used against Corbyn ie. to undermine ‘their strength’ and turn it into a weapon against them.
The powers that be, with the help of lies and the MSM managed to convince people that Corbyn, a life long anti racist, was anti semitic. In turn, the South Africans demonstrate that what is happening in Gaza is a genocide and a case is constructed, that Ramaposa et al, are themselves carrying out a genocide.
It is facile but works if repeated often enough by the establishment.
Thank you, Sue.
This tactic was used by Lee Atwater in 1988 and Karl Rove in 2004. In the latter case, John Kerry’s war record was spun against him by a draft dodgers Bush and Cheney, “swift boating”. Rove cheerfully explained to MSNBC’s Lawrence O’Donnell how it was done.
I wish the left around the world had attack dogs like Atwater and Rove. Ideas are not enough.
Colonel Smithers
Thanks for that.
It is said than when you have been around long enough, there are no new stories any more, just the same old ones repeating with a different cast! 😉
For those who may have missed out on American Pop Culture twenty years ago:
I give you:
“Karl Rove on American Dad”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ktIBE5JB-Dg
Left wing daughter: “I know you, you are the amoral puppet master behind George W Bush”
‘Karl Rove’ “Thank you.”
And an explainer for the uninitiated. 😉
https://americandad.fandom.com/wiki/Karl_Rove
IIRC there was also another episode where ‘Karl Rove’ could not cross the threshold and enter the household until he was explicitly invited in.
So even way back then, even on FOX network, the devil/vampire/evil emperor was recognised and lampooned.
Leaving all flippancy aside Richard, I predict that your ‘unknown knowns’ should enter into the canon of recognised Public Intellectual Discourse, and enter the general public lexicon, much as Donald Rumsfelds progenitor utterance did, but not to be puzzled over but recognized.
Much like Robert Heinleins ‘Stranger in a Strange Land’ introduced the english speaking world to ‘grok the fullness’. However, I guess that most young people on twitter will not know where Musk took that name from, or just how awful Donald Rumsfeld was. (Karl rove however- heh he was immortalised in a networked cartoon and thus famous on repeats and the youtubes for all eternity)
chapeau sir, chapeau!
Thank you
Although I suspect you are wrong. The video had a lower than average number of views.
It’s the Mother of all Unknown Knowns. The UK government recognises how damaging Trump is to democratic norms, global stability, and Western alliances. But it is choosing not to say so publicly, and that silence is strategic: aimed at managing risk, maintaining favour, and avoiding retaliation, especially on trade and security. But this is just weakness. It’s absolutely clear that we must simply accept any short-term risks in trade and diplomacy; coordinate with allies (especially EU, Canada, and Australia) to present a united democratic front, limiting the costs of US retaliation, and rethink our post-Brexit foreign policy, which we can all now so clearly see has been far too reliant on close US alignment.
Thank you, Richard and the community.
What possessed Ramaphosa to go ahead this visit? The SA media reported it as “a reset” and anticipated an ambush a la Zelensky.
Ramaphosa, whose fortune I won’t go into, could have pointed out that Elon Musk’s dad lives in the picturesque town of Langebaan and many Europeans are buying holiday homes and even bolt holes in the Cape, especially on the Atlantic side and at Plettenberg. What do they know that Trump doesn’t?
Did Richard and readers notice one of the papers waved by Trump was the Daily Mail? The Mail’s campaign goes back decades and predates Trump’s political career.
From Naked Capitalism: https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2025/05/debating-trump-ambush-of-south-african-president-with-white-genocide-lies.html.
Thanks
I wish President Ramaphosa and his entourage had simply walked out of the meeting on the grounds that this was an ambush in which he was totally unprepared, was disrespectful and breached diplomatic norms. You have to stand up to bullies.
Thank you, Philip.
SA, thanks to a neoliberal and corrupt ANC, is in no position to allow Ramaphosa to walk out. Ramaphosa was warned about the ambush, but was ill prepared.
If one reads the African press BTL, one increasingly sees comments comparing the likes of Ramaphosa unfavourably with the leaders of the Sahel states.
Ramaphosa isn’t able to stand up to a US that could easily sanction him and his family. They have a lot to lose, per: https://www.citizen.co.za/business/president-cyril-ramaphosa-billionaire-business-sanduka-group-net-worth/.
It seems the “evidence” Trump held up was an image from the Congo-not South Africa.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/south-africa-trump-ramaphosa-meeting-country-b2755877.html
It shows the White House propaganda ministry is not even competent in their lying.