Donald Trump news: US President humiliates South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in Oval Office

In another stunning White House visit, US President Donald Trump has humiliated South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in front of the world’s media, accusing his country of human rights violations.

President Trump sat side-by-side with Mr Ramaphosa in the Oval Office on Wednesday and proceeded to chastise him for his country’s treatment of white farmers and the ever-growing murder rate and killing sprees reported in the media.

At one point, Mr Trump held up page printouts of world news stories documenting the violence in South Africa and lectured Mr Ramaphosa on his ability to stem the violence.

The United States administration recently granted asylum to a group of white South African farmers wanting to flee South Africa prompting President Trump to describe the situation in South Africa as “white genocide.”

“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,” Mr Trump said during the meeting.

“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”

The meeting began in an upbeat manner as the pair discussed trade ideals and governance in their respective countries, then as visitors and advisers in the room squirmed, Mr Trump asked aids to dim the lights and showed a video purporting to show violence in South Africa.

Mr Ramaphosa mostly sat expressionless while the video was played, occasionally craning his neck to look at it and added he “had not seen that before”, and that he would “like to find out what the location was”.

Mr Trump said the video showed the graves of thousands of white farmers.

The US President then displayed printed copies of articles that he said showed white South Africans who had been killed, saying “death, death” as he flipped through them.

Mr Ramaphosa said there was crime in South Africa, and the “majority of victims were black” before Mr Trump cut him off and said: “The farmers are not black.”

Mr Ramaphosa responded: “These are concerns we are willing to talk to you about.”

In recent months, Mr Trump has criticised South Africa’s land reform law aimed at redressing the injustices of apartheid and its genocide court case against Israel.

He has cancelled aid, expelled South Africa’s ambassador and offered refuge to white minority Afrikaners based on racial discrimination claims that officials in Pretoria say are unfounded.

Mr Trump has accused South Africa of seizing land from white farmers and of fuelling violence against white landowners with “hateful rhetoric and government actions”.

South African authorities say these claims are inaccurate and “fail to recognise South Africa’s profound and painful history,” meaning its long history of domination by white colonialists, enshrined in the “apartheid” system.

- with AAP.