Trump retaliates against SA for refusing to hand over G20 presidency to US diplomat

United States (US) President Donald Trump is retaliating against South Africa for its refusal to hand over the presidency of the Group of 20 (G20) to a US diplomat over the weekend.

He’s announced that South Africa is not welcome to attend G20 events in Miami, Florida, in 2026 and all remaining funding to the country is to be pulled immediately.

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But the Presidency is unperturbed, saying as a founding member of the G20, it can’t be excluded and it also forms part of the troika of G20 hosts along with the United Kingdom (UK), which will take over from the US in 2027.

In a late-night post on his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump has once again repeated his false claim that white people in South Africa are being killed and their farms being taken at random.

“The United States did not attend the G20 in South Africa because the South African government refuses to acknowledge or address the horrific human right abuses endured by Afrikaners, and other descendants of Dutch, French, and German settlers.”

Trump goes on to say that South Africa has demonstrated that it’s not a country worthy of membership anywhere and all payments and subsidies from the US government will be stopped immediately.

On Monday, government handed over the G20 documents to a US diplomat at the Department of International Relations, saying over the weekend that it would not be proper for the president to conduct the hand over to a diplomat rather than a senior government leader.

Presidency spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said South Africa is a G20 member in its own right.

“It’s regrettable that despite the efforts and numerous attempts by President Cyril Ramaphosa and his administration to reset the diplomatic relationship with the United States, President Trump continues to apply punitive measures against South Africa based on misinformation and distortions about our country.”

The US was the only G20 country not to be presented by a government leader at the summit that took place at the Nasrec Expo Centre over the weekend, and with the exception of the business and civil society streams, snubbed most of the G20 meetings in South Africa in 2025.