As the United States assumed the G20 presidency on December 1, 2025, the transition has been anything but smooth. The move, led by President Donald Trump, has ignited diplomatic tensions, particularly with South Africa—whose recent leadership of the global economic forum was celebrated as a milestone for the continent. Now, with the US at the helm, the G20 faces a dramatic shift in priorities, a controversial exclusion, and questions about the very unity of the world’s premier economic club.
According to South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO), the Trump Administration pointedly omitted South Africa from invitations to the first Sherpa meeting of the 2026 G20 presidency, which was confirmed on December 2, 2025. This meeting, where representatives set the agenda for the coming year, is a crucial step in shaping the summit’s discussions. The exclusion is more than a diplomatic snub—it’s a signal of the direction the US intends to take the G20 under Trump’s leadership.
President Trump’s rationale for the exclusion centers on widely discredited claims of human rights abuses against white Afrikaner farmers in South Africa. On November 26, 2025, Trump declared publicly: “Therefore, at my direction, South Africa will NOT be receiving an invitation to the 2026 G20, which will be hosted in the Great City of Miami.” He accused South Africa of perpetrating “genocide” against white farmers—a narrative debunked by fact-checkers and dismissed by the South African government as baseless.
In a state of the nation address on November 30, 2025, President Cyril Ramaphosa responded forcefully, calling Trump’s remarks “regrettable” and reaffirming, “South Africa is and will remain a full, active and constructive member of the G20.” He emphasized that permanent members cannot be unilaterally barred, and DIRCO echoed this point, noting that invitations to the US for the 2025 summit in Johannesburg had remained open despite Trump’s own boycott.
The US, for its part, has made no secret of its new direction for the G20. In a State Department statement issued on December 2, 2025, officials said that under Trump’s leadership, the US will “return the G20 to focusing on its core mission of driving economic growth and prosperity to produce results.” The administration’s priorities are clear: unleashing economic prosperity by limiting regulatory burdens, unlocking affordable and secure energy supply chains, and pioneering new technologies and innovations. The 2026 Leaders’ Summit, set for Miami, Florida, will coincide with America’s 250th anniversary—a symbolic backdrop for a presidency intent on showcasing US leadership.
But beneath the rhetoric of prosperity and innovation, political analysts see a sharp departure from the inclusive, development-focused agenda championed by South Africa during its 2025 presidency. Professor Theo Neethling, a political analyst, noted that former president Thabo Mbeki’s assessment was spot-on: a renewed Trump presidency would prioritize interests as defined within the White House, rather than by the outcomes of the Johannesburg G20 Summit. “The strong emphasis the summit placed on the Global South will almost certainly recede as Trump reorients the forum toward issues that align with his own worldview and the priorities he considers central to US strategic interests,” Neethling told local media.
Indeed, the US administration made its opposition to South Africa’s 2025 G20 agenda clear, deriding its focus on climate change and global wealth inequality as “DEI” (diversity, equity, and inclusion) and not a good use of US taxpayer money. Instead, Trump’s G20 is expected to focus on trade, energy, security, and strategic competition with China. As Neethling put it, “Trump is likely to reorient the G20 away from development and global equity themes and toward a more US-centric platform.”
The exclusion of South Africa is not just about disputed narratives over land reform or crime statistics. Analysts and officials in Pretoria see it as an attempt to marginalize South Africa over its foreign policy stances, particularly its alliances with China, Russia, and Iran. Trump has even gone so far as to call South Africa a “terrorist state” in some statements, and his administration has ordered a review of US relations with the country—potentially affecting crucial trade agreements like the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).
South Africa’s 2025 G20 presidency, by contrast, was widely hailed as a success. The Johannesburg Declaration emphasized inclusive growth and support for low-income countries, and the summit was the first ever held on African soil. Leaders from across the globe, including India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, praised the meeting’s outcomes. The African Union and other international leaders have shown solidarity with South Africa in the wake of Trump’s move, viewing the exclusion as an attack on Africa’s voice in global forums.
The mechanics of the G20 handover have also become a point of contention. By tradition, the host country hands over a symbolic wooden gavel to the nation taking over the presidency. But with Trump boycotting the Johannesburg summit—the first such boycott by a US president—there was no American official on hand to receive it from President Ramaphosa. The US wanted a representative from its embassy to accept the gavel, but South Africa refused, calling it an insult for Ramaphosa to hand over to what it considered a junior official. Eventually, the instruments of the G20 presidency were handed over to a US Embassy official at DIRCO headquarters, but the episode left a sour taste on both sides.
For many observers, this episode is emblematic of a broader shift in global governance. The G20, once seen as a forum where developed and developing nations could find common ground on issues like debt relief, climate finance, and pandemic response, now risks becoming a stage for great power competition and politicized decision-making. The exclusion of South Africa from the Sherpa meeting—a venue where the summit’s agenda is crafted—means the continent’s largest economy will have little influence on global discussions about trade, climate, and development in the year ahead.
Not everyone is convinced this is a temporary storm. Zakhele Ndlovu, another political analyst, suggested that the US announcement was “clearly a swipe at South Africa,” and that the G20 “lost focus” during South Africa’s presidency. Whether this new, US-centric G20 will deliver on its promises of prosperity and innovation—or simply deepen divisions between North and South—remains to be seen.
For now, the world’s eyes are on Miami, where the 2026 G20 Leaders’ Summit will unfold under the shadow of controversy. As the US marks its 250th anniversary, the question is whether the G20 can still serve as a bridge between continents—or whether it will become yet another arena for global rivalry and exclusion.