In a dramatic turn on the world stage, President Donald Trump has announced that the United States will boycott the upcoming Group of 20 (G20) summit in Johannesburg, South Africa, scheduled for November 22-23, 2025. The move, declared on November 8 via Trump’s social media platform, comes amid escalating diplomatic tensions and has drawn sharp rebukes both domestically and internationally. The president cited what he called ongoing human rights abuses against South Africa’s white Afrikaner minority as the reason for the boycott, repeating claims that have been widely discredited by experts and South African authorities alike.
“It is a total disgrace that the G20 will be held in South Africa,” Trump wrote. “No U.S. Government Official will attend as long as these Human Rights abuses continue.” This announcement reversed a prior plan, made in September, for Vice President JD Vance to represent the U.S. at the summit. Now, no American official will attend at all.
Trump’s boycott is the latest flashpoint in a period of steadily deteriorating relations between Washington and Pretoria since his return to office in January. According to AP, Trump’s administration has repeatedly targeted South Africa’s Black-led government, not only over its internal policies but also for its international stances, such as its decision to accuse Israel of genocide against Palestinians at the United Nations’ top court. In February, Trump issued an executive order halting U.S. financial assistance to South Africa, accusing the country of “aggressive positions towards the United States and its allies.”
A key element of Trump’s criticism centers on the Afrikaners, a white minority group descended mainly from Dutch, French, and German settlers who arrived in the 17th century. Numbering about 2.7 million in a population of 62 million, Afrikaners have a complex history in South Africa. They were central to the apartheid regime that ruled until 1994, but today, many are integrated into the country’s multiracial democracy, with some even having opposed apartheid. Afrikaners are represented across all sectors of society, from business to government and sports.
Trump has repeatedly claimed that Afrikaners are “being killed and slaughtered, and their land and farms are being illegally confiscated.” These assertions reference a controversial South African law that allows land to be appropriated without compensation, a measure intended to address historical injustices and redistribute land to the Black majority. However, the law has not yet led to widespread land seizures, and many South Africans, including opposition parties, have criticized it as well.
South African officials, as reported by AP and The Federal, have firmly rejected Trump’s claims. The foreign ministry described his statements as “regrettable” and insisted, “The characterisation of Afrikaners as an exclusively white group is ahistorical. Furthermore, the claim that this community faces persecution is not substantiated by fact.” The ministry highlighted that South Africa’s G20 presidency theme is “Solidarity, Equality, Sustainability,” underscoring the nation’s commitment to post-apartheid reconciliation and inclusion.
Data on violence in South Africa tell a more nuanced story. In 2024, the country recorded over 26,000 homicides, with just 37 classified as farm murders, according to an Afrikaner lobby group. Experts on rural crime have stated that the primary motive for such attacks is robbery, not race, and that both Black and white farmers are victims. The government has argued that Trump’s narrative misses this context and is based on misinformation.
Despite these facts, Trump’s administration has taken concrete steps to prioritize Afrikaners for U.S. refugee status, allocating most of the 7,500 available slots this fiscal year to them. Simultaneously, the president imposed 30 percent tariffs on South African goods, the highest for any sub-Saharan African nation.
This series of actions has inflamed tensions not only with the South African government but also within the United States. Critics argue that Trump’s approach signals a broader shift in U.S. foreign and domestic policy, aligning with right-wing nationalist movements and undermining America’s traditional role as a champion of human rights. According to The Federal, on the same day Trump announced the G20 boycott, U.S. officials also boycotted their own human rights review at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva—an unprecedented move. American civil society leaders, attending in the government’s absence, issued dire warnings of a “moral and ethical crisis” and likened current policies to “American apartheid.”
“We all know why the 34-time convicted felon, who is President of the United States, does not want to be here,” said Larry Krasner, the district attorney of Philadelphia, at a press conference in Geneva. “He does not want a report card on his unceasing violations of human rights.” Uzra Zeya, a former U.S. diplomat, added, “This unprecedented US boycott threatens the core principle of the process.” The event saw a broad coalition of state and local officials, civil rights attorneys, and advocates denouncing what they described as severe abuses of refugee and immigrant rights, inhumane detention practices, and the suppression of civil liberties.
Some speakers drew sharp historical parallels, invoking the legacies of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr., and warning of the erosion of U.S. moral leadership. Robert Selim Holbrook from Philadelphia said, “The administration is running from accountability. It could no more defend its positions at home than apartheid South Africa could in the 80s.” Los Angeles County Supervisor Holly Mitchell argued, “The federal government is failing the American people,” referencing drastic cuts to social programs and food support.
The symbolism of the empty U.S. seat at the UN review was not lost on observers. As Holbrook put it, “The United States is now on the stage as an international rogue… I found it telling that China lectured the United States on human rights.” The Human Rights First representative echoed concerns that the U.S. abdication of its traditional role was creating an opening for governments like China and Russia to advance their own interests at the expense of global human rights norms.
Back in Washington, Trump has made clear his intention to continue shaping the international agenda. He has already expressed his desire to host the 2026 G20 summit at his own golf resort in Miami, Florida—a move fraught with controversy. Rumors are now circulating that South Africa may not receive an invitation to the event.
As the diplomatic standoff between the U.S. and South Africa deepens, the world is left to grapple with the implications of an American administration that is increasingly at odds with both allies and its own civil society. The coming months will test whether global institutions like the G20 and the United Nations can withstand such strains and whether the U.S. can reclaim its standing as a leader on human rights and democracy.
