Thursday, May 22, 2025
Trump’s big tax bill has passed the House. Here’s what’s inside it
Trump’s big tax bill has passed the House. Here’s what’s inside it
By KEVIN FREKING and LISA MASCARO
"WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans early Thursday took a major step forward on President Donald Trump’s agenda, approving a legislative package that combines tax breaks, spending cuts, border security funding and other priorities.
House committees labored for months on the bill, which underwent late changes to win over holdouts in the Republican conference. It exceeds 1,000 pages and is titled the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” a nod to Trump himself.
Republicans made one last round of revisions before the bill reached the House floor, boosting the state and local tax deduction to win over centrists and speeding up the work requirements in Medicaid to win over those who didn’t believe the bill did enough to curb spending.
Here’s a look at what’s in the legislative package, which is expected to undergo more changes when it goes to the Senate.
Tax cuts for individuals and businesses
Republicans look to make permanent the individual income and estate tax cuts passed in Trump’s first term, in 2017, plus enact promises he made on the 2024 campaign trail to not tax tips, overtime and interest on some auto loans.
To partially offset the lost revenue, Republicans propose repealing or phasing out more quickly the clean energy tax credits passed during Joe Biden’s presidency, helping to bring down the overall cost of the tax portion to about $3.8 trillion.
The bill includes a temporary boost in the standard deduction — a $1,000 increase for individuals, bringing it to $16,000 for individual filers, and a $2,000 boost for joint filers, bringing it to $32,000. The deduction reduces the amount of income that is actually subject to income tax.
There is also a temporary $500 increase in the child tax credit, bringing it to $2,500 for 2025 through 2028. It then returns to $2,000 and will increase to account for inflation.
The estate tax exemption rises to $15 million and is adjusted for inflation going forward.
One of the thorniest issues in negotiations had been how much to raise the state and local tax deduction, now capped at $10,000. That’s been a priority of New York lawmakers. The bill increases the “SALT” cap to $40,000 for incomes up to $500,000, with the cap phasing downward for those with higher incomes. Also, the cap and income threshold will increase 1% annually over 10 years.
Several of the provisions Trump promised in the campaign would be temporary, lasting roughly through his term in office. The tax breaks for tips, overtime and car loan interest expire at the end of 2028. That’s also the case for a $4,000 increase in the standard deduction for seniors.
Among the various business tax provisions, small businesses, including partnerships and S corporations, will be able to subtract 23% of their qualified business income from their taxes. The deduction has been 20%
Businesses will temporarily be allowed to fully expense domestic research and development costs in the year they occur and the cost of machinery, equipment and other qualifying assets. This encourages businesses to invest in ways that enhances their productivity.
Parents and older Americans face work requirements for food assistance
House Republicans would reduce spending on food aid, what is known as the Supplemental Nutrition and Assistance Program, by about $267 billion over 10 years.
States would shoulder 5% of benefit costs, beginning in fiscal 2028, and 75% of the administrative costs. Currently, states pay none of the benefit and half of the administration costs.
Republicans also are expanding the work requirements to receive food aid. Under current law, able-bodied adults without dependents must fulfill work requirements until they are 54, and that would change under the bill to age 64.
Also, some parents are currently exempt from work requirements until their children are 18; that would change so only those caring for a dependent child under the age of 7 are exempt.
And new work requirements for Medicaid
A focal point of the package is nearly $700 billion in reduced spending in the Medicaid program, according to CBO.
To be eligible for Medicaid, there would be new “community engagement requirements” of at least 80 hours per month of work, education or service for able-bodied adults without dependents. The new requirements would begin on Dec. 31, 2026. People would also have to verify their eligibility for the program twice a year, rather than just once.
Republicans are looking to generate savings with new work requirements. But Democrats warn that millions of Americans will lose coverage.
A preliminary estimate from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said the proposals would reduce the number of people with health care by 8.6 million over the decade.
No taxes on gun silencers, no money for Planned Parenthood and more
Republicans are also using the package to reward allies and disadvantage political foes.
The package would eliminate a $200 tax on gun silencers that has existed since Congress passed the National Firearms Act in 1934. The elimination of the tax is supported by the NRA.
The group Giffords, which works to reduce gun violence, said silencers make it more difficult to recognize the sound of gunfire and locate the source of gunshots, impairing the ability of law enforcement to respond to active shooters.
Republicans are also looking to prohibit Medicaid funds from going to Planned Parenthood, which provides abortion care. Democrats say defunding the organization would make it harder for millions of patients to get cancer screenings, pap tests and birth control.
‘Trump’ kids $1,000 savings accounts
The bill originally called for “MAGA” accounts, shorthand for Trump’s signature line, “Make America Great Again.” But in a last-minute revision, the bill changed the name to “Trump” accounts.
For parents or guardians who open new “Trump” accounts for their children, the federal government will contribute $1,000 for babies born between Jan. 1, 2024 and Dec. 31, 2028.
Families could add $5,000 a year, with the account holders unable to take distributions before age 18. Then, they could access up to 50% of the money to pay for higher education, training and first-time home purchases. At age 30, account holders have access to the full balance of the account for any purpose.
Funding for Trump’s mass deportation operation
The legislation would provide $46.5 billion to revive construction of Trump’s wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, and more money for the deportation agenda.
There’s $4 billion to hire an additional 3,000 new Border Patrol agents as well as 5,000 new customs officers, and $2.1 billion for signing and retention bonuses. There’s also funds for 10,000 more Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and investigators.
It includes major changes to immigration policy, imposing a $1,000 fee on migrants seeking asylum — something the nation has never done, putting it on par with few others, including Australia and Iran.
Overall, the plan is to remove 1 million immigrants annually and house 100,000 people in detention centers.
More money for the Pentagon and Trump’s ‘Golden Dome’
There’s also nearly with $150 billion in new money for the Defense Department and national security.
It would provide $25 billion for Trump’s “Golden Dome for America,” a long-envisioned missile defense shield, $21 billion to restock the nation’s ammunition arsenal, $34 billion to expand the naval fleet with more shipbuilding and some $5 billion for border security.
It also includes $9 billion for servicemember quality of life-related issues, including housing, health care and special pay.
Tax on university endowments and overhaul of student loans
A wholesale revamping of the student loan program is key to the legislation, providing $330 billion in budget cuts and savings.
The proposal would replace all existing student loan repayment plans with just two: a standard option with monthly payments spread out over 10 to 25 years and a “repayment assistance” plan that is generally less generous than those it would replace.
Among other changes, the bill would repeal Biden-era regulations that made it easier for borrowers to get loans canceled if their colleges defrauded them or closed suddenly.
There would be a tax increase, up to 21%, on some university endowments.
More drilling, mining on public lands
To generate revenue, one section would allow increased leasing of public lands for drilling, mining and logging while clearing the path for more development by speeding up government approvals.
Royalty rates paid by companies to extract oil, gas and coal would be cut, reversing Biden’s attempts to curb fossil fuels to help address climate change.
___
Associated Press writers Collin Binkley and Mary Clare Jalonick in Washington and Matthew Brown in Billings, Montana, contributed to this report.
Originally Published:"
It Is Going to Kill People”: Disability Rights Activist Speaks Out on Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill”
It Is Going to Kill People”: Disability Rights Activist Speaks Out on Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill”
A South African Grift Lands in the Oval Office
A South African Grift Lands in the Oval Office
By Richard Poplak
“Mr. Poplak is a journalist and filmmaker based in Johannesburg.
In March, a South African lobbyist for white rights named Ernst Roets appeared across from Tucker Carlson in an episode on Mr. Carlson’s YouTube channel called, “Man Charged With Treason for Speaking to Tucker About the Killing of Whites in South Africa.” This being the Tucker Carlson Show, at least two pieces of misinformation were shoehorned into the title. A man hadn’t been charged with treason for speaking to Mr. Carlson and white folks weren’t being killed in South Africa — at least, not at a rate higher than the rest of the population.
The title was correct on one point: Mr. Roets had indeed been interviewed by Mr. Carlson before. On the first occasion, he decanted an entire grievance mythos into the MAGAverse. The gist of his argument, as Mr. Carlson summed it up in his recent podcast episode, was that South Africa is shockingly racist against white people — “far more than apartheid ever was” to Black people.
In South Africa, Mr. Roets’ particular brand of performative victimhood is greeted not with jail time or the gallows, as it would be the case in some countries, but mostly with memes. Bazillions of them. The vast majority mock the notion that Mr. Roets’ constituency — white, right-wing Afrikaners disgruntled with the status quo — are in any way singled out for mistreatment by the government. In fact, no one community in South Africa has benefited more from apartheid’s economic legacy than white South Africans, yet for years a small but vocal group has decried what they consider to be institutional discrimination against them, making their claims on television shows, podcasts and social media.
But as Tucker Carlson goes, so goes the Trump administration. In February, after halting lifesaving aid for African H.I.V./AIDS and malaria programs across Africa, President Trump signed an executive order that, among other things, offered refugee status to “ethnic minority Afrikaners,” the vast majority of whom are white. In the middle of May, with uncommon efficiency, a plane chartered by the U.S. government spirited almost 60 new refugees to the United States, where they were met by a welcoming committee.
As we say in South Africa, ’n Boer maak ’n plan. A farmer makes a plan.
Contrary to the claims in Mr. Trump’s order, there is no evidence that the civil rights of white South Africans have been systematically trampled on, or that white landowners face disproportionate violence. They own farms that occupy about half of South Africa’s area, despite making up around 7 percent of the population. No white-owned land or home has been forcibly taken by the government under a new land law mentioned in Mr. Trump’s order.
These lobbyists travel into and out of South Africa without hindrance, facing no bans or financial repercussions. (Such opportunities, most readers will be unsurprised to learn, were not available to Black dissidents during apartheid. They were banned, jailed or forced into exile.) Recently, an opposition party has suggested bringing treason charges against an activist group, an idea drawing some enthusiasm among members of the government. But good luck pulling that one past South Africa’s highest court, which has a liberal bent. Mr. Roets and his backers live in a democracy — a noisy, messy, contested one — but a democracy nonetheless.
What is happening in Nelson Mandela’s Rainbow Nation? And why are the MAGA movement and Mr. Trump — who are mostly disinterested in African affairs — so concerned with the welfare of this particular group of South African citizens? The short answer is: white. The more substantial answer is that South Africa’s transition from apartheid to democracy is wildly misunderstood. “The perfect term for it is transplacement,” the political analyst Ralph Mathekga has said. “What that means is that the old system did not die. It is “still breathing.”
The miracle of South Africa’s first free elections in 1994 was not, as most people assume, the “peaceful” transition to democracy and the ascension of Mandela to the top job, but rather the fact that apartheid’s engineers and upholders were allowed to compete in the first place. They won 20 percent of that vote and assumed a leading role in the government. The old oppressors served alongside the formerly oppressed in a “government of national unity” and had enormous influence in drafting the country’s new constitution. The document could not have turned out better for Afrikaner nationalists, who were asked to give up none of apartheid’s spoils in exchange for a liberal constitution that enshrined their rights.
To this day, the bulk of South Africa’s private wealth remains in white hands. And while life is demonstrably better for the Black majority — especially with regard to nice perks like habeas corpus, freedom of movement and universal suffrage — South Africa is, by many measures, the most unequal society on earth. The white minority is the major beneficiary of this arrangement, but there is a caveat. Even within this cohort, wealth distribution is lumpy. Much of the Afrikaans middle class that was forged and protected by the apartheid system now struggles to make ends meet. Compounding matters, the government runs along rails of corruption and double-dealing that enriches a small Black elite connected to the African National Congress, Mandela’s party that still dominates South African politics.
The decline of the middle class is a global phenomenon, but in South Africa, as in parts of America, it takes on unambiguously racial characteristics. These grievances were blasted into America when Afrikaner lobbyists shared the myth of “white genocide” over the past decade, coinciding with the rise of Mr. Trump. They falsely allege that the South African government is responsible for a campaign of targeted violence against rural “Boers,” the Afrikaans term for farmer. (Boer has a secondary connotation in the language, too: boss, or overlord.)
There is no question that many rural South Africans, like many urban South Africans, have experienced almost wartime levels of violence. South Africa’s gruesome rates of inequality almost ensure this. The police are often useless, or worse. Organized gangsterism and industrial-scale stock theft reduce rural areas to occasional battlefields. But to allege government complicity in the murder of white farmers — let alone genocide — is a falsehood that verges on a full-scale rewrite of South Africa’s history. (By contrast, apartheid itself was never designated a genocide, and no credible revisionist movement has ever argued otherwise.)
Give Ernst Roets and his fellow travelers this much: They intimately understand MAGA culture and its feedback loop, and bafflingly, America’s so-called culture wars have found enormous purchase in South Africa’s elite circles. One would imagine that a major upside of living at the bottom of Africa is not having to know the particulars of Nancy Pelosi’s stock portfolio, or being versed in Fox News talking points on the contents of Hunter Biden’s laptop. But one would be mistaken.
By appearing on Tucker Carlson, by posting on X, and by exploiting the animus to Black governance by white South Africans such as Elon Musk, who is closely tied to the Trump administration, the Afrikaner right lobby has vaulted their cause to the top of the geopolitical discussion.
If any more evidence of this was required, it was settled by Wednesday’s meeting in the Oval Office between President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa and Mr. Trump. In a patented example of cringe diplomacy, Team Trump ambushed Mr. Ramaphosa’s delegation with a super cut video of former A.N.C. politician Julius Malema, a cosplay revolutionary who insists on singing an old apartheid-era struggle song called “Dubul’ ibhunu,” often translated as “Kill The Boer,” at his political rallies. For the likes of Mr. Musk and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Mr. Malema’s antics are clearly incitement to genocide, though no incidents of violence have been definitively linked to the song.
Mr. Ramaphosa’s obsequiousness in the face of Mr. Trump’s barrage was to be expected; he is a man of many comforts, who has grown unaccustomed to being challenged. Thankfully, there were golfers and businessmen present in the Oval Office to try to temper the exchange. But, as all of this should make clear, the race-baiting grift is alive and well in South Africa.
Indeed, South Africa helped define and perfect white supremacy, so take it from an expert: This is an effort to flip the narrative of apartheid, and cast former oppressors as victims. It’s an attempt to invalidate the end of legislated white minority rule in South Africa, and render white Afrikaners as victims of reverse racism, to say nothing of targeted mass murder. It’s about spreading the global white replacement conspiracy theory.
Make no mistake, democratic South Africa is, in many respects, a failed, violent and corrupt state. But the forgiveness extended to the white minority at the end of apartheid is one of the most exceptionally human and humane moments of our species’ bloody history. By turning their backs on this, by accepting refugee status and claiming the mantle of exceptional victimhood, right-wing Afrikaners have become bit players in MAGA’s noisy but empty scam. They leave nothing behind them, except their home.
And the memes. Bazillions of them.“
South Africans React to Ramaphosa’s Meeting With Trump
South Africans React to Ramaphosa’s Meeting With Trump
“During a meeting with President Trump, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa aimed to address false claims of white genocide and strengthen trade ties. However, the meeting turned confrontational when Trump played a montage of inflammatory remarks by a South African politician and compared the situation to apartheid. Despite Ramaphosa’s efforts to redirect the conversation, Trump dominated the discussion, leaving Ramaphosa with the task of repairing relations and addressing economic challenges.
In a bruising Oval Office meeting, the visitors’ plan to keep President Trump from focusing on false accusations of white genocide backfired spectacularly.
transcript
Some South Africans defended President Cyril Ramaphosa’s handling of President Trump’s false claims during a confrontational meeting in the Oval Office while others expressed dismay.
I think it was a very much necessary meeting because there was a lot of fake information going out there. I think it’s something that needed to happen for the president to be able to explain to the U.S. president. People who do get killed, unfortunately, through criminal activity are not only white people, majority of them are Black people. Ramaphosa or the team did not realize is that this is not the traditional diplomatic stage that they are used to. It’s a new type of diplomacy. And it’s a Trump show. Turn the lights down and just put this on. It’s right behind you. We’ve had tremendous complaints about Africa, about other countries too. Trump was pretty much prepared for him. The president and his team did not have a comeback.
For President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa, the meeting in the Oval Office was meant to be a chance to hit the reset button.
He did everything to get the mood right. He got President Trump to giggle with a joke about golf. He offered him a book. And he kept the compliments flowing, thanking Mr. Trump for providing South Africa with respirators during the Covid-19 pandemic.
“It really touched my heart,” Mr. Ramaphosa said.
In the build up to Mr. Ramaphosa’s meeting in the White House on Wednesday, South African officials stressed that they would not focus on Mr. Trump’s recent claims of white genocide, which are widely acknowledged as false. Instead they would talk about tariffs, South Africa’s valuable minerals and strengthening business ties between the two countries.
But Mr. Ramaphosa walked away from the meeting bruised and still carrying uncertainty over the future of his country’s crucial relationship with the United States. His effort to avoid the discussion of the so-called genocide and the recent arrival of 59 white South Africans labeled refugees by the Trump administration appeared to backfire spectacularly.
Now, South Africa finds itself with more work to do to avert steep tariffs, secure a new trade agreement and set the record straight on Mr. Trump’s continued accusations of racism against white people, who on the whole are much better off economically than the Black majority in South Africa.
“Today’s performance, if it does not lead to meaningful reconciliation, will only create more downward pressure on poor South Africans who struggle,” said Patrick Gaspard, the former United States ambassador to South Africa.
South Africa needs the United States more than ever, with unemployment and inequality soaring, economic growth tepid and violence against South Africans of all races rampant. Mr. Ramaphosa sought to get reassurances from the White House that his country could continue to rely on the United States, its second largest trading partner, as a market for South African goods and as a source of investment in the nation’s economy.
But his plans fell apart when Mr. Trump ordered his people to turn down the lights in the Oval Office.
An aide standing next to a big-screen television popped open a laptop and pressed play. A montage of clips featuring Julius Malema, a firebrand leftist South African politician, began to play. In the clips, Mr. Malema leads apartheid-era chants calling for South Africans to kill Afrikaners, the white ethnic minority that created and led the brutal system of apartheid.
For the next 40 minutes, as the world watched live, Mr. Ramaphosa could do little to stop Mr. Trump from framing the meeting on his terms. Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, deposited a stack of news clips on a table next to Mr. Trump with headlines about white South Africans.
Mr. Trump even got Retief Goosen — one of the championship golfers Mr. Ramaphosa had brought to the meeting to help dispel myths about white persecution — to reveal that his family used an electric fence for protection and that his mother had been the victim of an attack.
At one point, Mr. Trump equated the circumstances — falsely — that white South Africans currently face to the atrocities of apartheid, which subjected Black South Africans to subhuman conditions and violence.
But, Mr. Trump said, “what’s happening now is never reported.”
Mr. Ramaphosa’s efforts to address the footage were drowned out by Mr. Trump, who went so far as to wave off the South African leader when he attempted to talk over the video.
Still, Mr. Trump declined to say he knew for certain that there was genocide against white people happening in South Africa, and Mr. Ramaphosa counted that as a win.
“I do believe that there’s doubt and disbelief in his head about all of this,” Mr. Ramaphosa said.
The two sides held a working lunch following the Oval Office gathering, and Mr. Ramaphosa briefed journalists in a hotel ballroom afterward. He was greeted by halting applause from members of his delegation. The president, known as a calm tactician, was smiling.
“All in all, I do believe that our visit here has been a great success,” Mr. Ramaphosa said, arguing that once the cameras were off, the conversation was no longer contentious.
South Africa presented a framework for a trade deal, the president said, and the two sides agreed to hold further discussions to iron out the specifics of an agreement. He said that Mr. Trump indicated that he would attend the Group of 20 summit in Johannesburg in November, despite suggestions by his administration that the United States might skip it.
Even as Mr. Ramaphosa claimed success, by his own measure, there remains a lot of work to do to repair his country’s relations with the United States and bring the economy back to heel.
Senator Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat from Maryland, said that if South Africa, the continent’s largest economy, continued to feel isolated by the United States, it could damage American interests as well.
“I see this as Donald Trump retreating from the Global South and ceding leadership to China and other adversaries,” he said.
Mr. Ramaphosa did manage to avoid one contentious discussion during the meeting: Mr. Trump’s delegation did not even bring up the genocide case that South Africa filed against Israel for the war in Gaza, a subject that has fueled many of Mr. Trump’s attacks against South Africa.
John Eligon is the Johannesburg bureau chief for The Times, covering a wide range of events and trends that influence and shape the lives of ordinary people across southern Africa.“
Trump Claimed a Social Media Video Showed ‘Burial Sites’ of White Farmers. It Didn’t.
Trump Claimed a Social Media Video Showed ‘Burial Sites’ of White Farmers. It Didn’t.
“During a meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, President Trump showed a video of a memorial procession in South Africa, claiming it depicted burial sites of over 1,000 white farmers. A New York Times analysis found the footage showed a memorial for a murdered white farming couple, with the crosses later removed. The misrepresentation occurred during a meeting where Trump made false claims about a genocide against white farmers.
During a meeting with South Africa’s president, President Trump played the video as evidence of racial persecution. A Times analysis found he misrepresented the contents of the video.
In a White House meeting on Wednesday, President Trump showed President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa a social media video of a rural road lined with white crosses and hundreds of vehicles.
Mr. Trump told Mr. Ramaphosa that the footage showed “burial sites” of “over 1,000” white farmers in South Africa.
A New York Times analysis found that the footage instead showed a memorial procession on Sept. 5, 2020, near Newcastle, South Africa. The event, according to a local news website, was for a white farming couple in the area who the police said had been murdered in late August of that year.
The crosses were planted in the days ahead of the event and were later removed.
The misrepresentation of the footage took place during a stunning meeting in which Mr. Trump made false claims about a genocide against white farmers. Mr. Trump dimmed the lights to play the footage, presenting it as evidence of racial persecution against white South Africans.
As the clip played, Mr. Trump said: “These are burial sites right here. Burial sites. Over a thousand of white farmers.”
Contrary to Mr. Trump’s statements, the crosses are not gravesites for farmers and were not permanently placed along the road. Footage posted to social media before the remembrance event, in early September 2020, shows people setting up the white crosses, and Google Street View images from 2023 indicate they have since been taken down.
There have been a number of protests against the killing of white farmers in South Africa. White crosses are known to be used at these events to represent slain farmers. Videos and photos at the Sept. 5 event also showed tractors adorned with flags condemning farm murders and a large banner reading, “President Ramaphosa, how many more must die???” stretched between two vehicles above the roadway.
South Africa has an exceptionally high murder rate, but police statistics do not show that white South Africans or farmers are more vulnerable to violent crime than other people.
A White House official told The Times each cross represented a white farmer who had been killed but did not comment on why Mr. Trump had characterized the video as showing burial sites.
It’s unclear where Mr. Trump got the video from, or who, if anyone, characterized to him what the video showed. Elon Musk — who is originally from South Africa and is one of Mr. Trump’s advisers — had posted the video on the social media site X at least twice before today’s meeting.
In Wednesday’s meeting, when Mr. Ramaphosa asked where the video was from, Mr. Trump said, “I mean, it’s in South Africa.”
Riley Mellen is a reporter on The Times’s visual investigations team, which combines traditional reporting with advanced digital forensics.
Aric Toler is a reporter on the Visual Investigations team at The Times where he uses emerging techniques of discovery to analyze open source information.“
Wednesday, May 21, 2025
Trump Lectures South African President in Televised Oval Office Confrontation - The New York Times
Trump Lectures South African President in Televised Oval Office Confrontation
"President Trump showed a video and leafed through printouts of what he said was evidence of racial persecution of white South Africans. The country’s president tried to correct the record.
transcript
Trump Repeats False Claims to South African President
President Trump shared a video with President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa that he claimed showed evidence of racial persecution against white South Africans.
“Thank you very much.” “Well, I can answer that for president. It’s for him — [laughter] no seriously.” “I’d rather have him answer.” “It will take President Trump listening to the voices of South Africans, some of whom are his good friends.” “Turn the lights down and just put this on. It’s right behind you. Those people were all killed.” “Have they told you where that is, Mr. President? I’d like to know where that is because this, I’ve never seen. There is criminality in our country. People who do get killed, unfortunately through criminal activity, are not only white people. Majority of them are Black people.”
In an astonishing confrontation in the Oval Office on Wednesday, President Trump lectured President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa with false claims about a genocide against white Afrikaner farmers, even dimming the lights to show what he said was video evidence of their persecution.
The meeting had been expected to be tense, given that Mr. Trump has suspended all aid to the country and created an exception to his refugee ban for Afrikaners, fast-tracking their path to citizenship even as he keeps thousands of other people out.
But the meeting quickly became a stark demonstration of Mr. Trump’s belief that the world has aligned against white people, and that Black people and minorities have received preferential treatment. In the case of South Africa, that belief has ballooned into claims of genocide.
At first, the two leaders seemed to glide over the most contentious issues, focusing instead on golf and a bit of foreign policy. Mr. Ramaphosa brought along two South African golfers, Ernie Els and Retief Goosen, as guests, in a nod to the American president’s favorite sport.
But the discussions took a turn when a journalist asked a what it would take for Mr. Trump to change his mind and see there was no “white genocide” in South Africa.
Mr. Ramaphosa, answering for the president, said: “It will take President Trump listening to the voices of South Africans.”
Mr. Trump was ready with his response. “Turn the lights down and just put this on,” he told his aides.
A booming video mash-up began to play, including footage of people calling for violence against white farmers in South Africa. One clip showed white crosses planted alongside a rural road stretching far into the distance, which Mr. Trump said were part of a burial site for murdered white farmers. The crosses were actually planted by activists staging a protest against farm murders.
By the end, with the stunned South African president looking on, Mr. Trump began flipping through a stack of papers, apparently showing white victims of violence in South Africa: “Death, death, death,” he said.
At least one of the scenes on the screen appeared to be the rallying cry of “Kill the Boer,” which U.S. officials and Afrikaner activists have cited as evidence that white South Africans are being persecuted. Boer means farmer in Dutch and Afrikaans.
The governing party of South Africa, the African National Congress, distanced itself years ago from the chant, which was popularized by the leader of another political party.
Mr. Ramaphosa said the video did not show the full picture of his country.
“We have a multiparty democracy in South Africa that allows people to express themselves,” he told Mr. Trump. “Our government policy is completely against what he was saying.”
Mr. Ramaphosa acknowledged his nation suffered from a crime problem. But his delegation tried to explain that it was widespread and not specific to white South Africans.
“We were taught by Nelson Mandela that whenever there are problems, people need to sit down around a table and talk about them,” Mr. Ramaphosa said.
There have been killings of white South Africans, but police statistics do not show that they are more vulnerable to violent crime than other people. White South Africans are far better off than Black people on virtually every marker of the economic scale.
The encounter in many ways exemplified Mr. Trump’s selective concern over human rights in other countries.
While he showcased allegations of mistreatment of white people in democratic South Africa, just a week ago he traveled to three Middle East countries ruled by repressive regimes and told them he would not lecture them about how they treat their own people.
He cheerfully visited with and praised the Saudi crown prince who, according to the C.I.A., ordered the murder and dismemberment of a Washington Post journalist during Mr. Trump’s first term. Mr. Trump did not offer not a word of reproach.
The encounter in some ways echoed the February visit to the Oval Office by President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine. Mr. Trump and Vice President JD Vance berated Mr. Zelensky in front of TV cameras, cutting short a visit meant to coordinate a plan for peace.
The meeting with Mr. Ramaphosa on Wednesday was also striking because of the ways in which Mr. Trump dismissed attempts to push back on his fringe claims by those who knew most about them.
Mr. Trump scowled and dismissed Mr. Ramaphosa and his delegates during the meeting, including a Black woman who tried to explain that brutal crimes happen to Black people in the country as well.
By contrast, Mr. Trump joked around and listened attentively as Mr. Els, Mr. Goosen and Johann Rupert, a white South African billionaire, said crime was prevalent across the board in the nation, not just against white farmers.
Mr. Ramaphosa entered the meeting seemingly optimistic about maintaining a cordial conversation with Mr. Trump. He offered olive branches to Mr. Trump, including a book about golf. He complimented Mr. Trump’s décor in the Oval Office.
He even attempted to joke with the president, who had become irate when a reporter asked him about a free plane from the Qatari government.
“I am sorry I don’t have a plane to give you,” Mr. Ramaphosa said to Mr. Trump.
“I wish you did,” Mr. Trump replied. “I’d take it. If your country offered the U.S. Air Force a plane, I would take it.”
Mr. Trump seemed more intent on relaying the talking points from leaders of Afrikaner lobbying groups, who have traveled to the United States repeatedly over the years to gather support for their claims of persecution. When one of those groups met with Mr. Trump’s top aides earlier this year, the White House identified them as “civil rights leaders.”
At one point, Mr. Trump referred to another apparently informal adviser on South Africa.
“Elon is from South Africa,” Mr. Trump said, waving at the billionaire, who was standing nearby, close to Stephen Miller, Mr. Trump’s deputy chief of staff.
Mr. Musk has been among the most vocal critics of the South African government, and has lashed out at Mr. Ramaphosa on social media.
“Elon happens to be from South Africa,” Mr. Trump said. “This is what Elon wanted.”
Mr. Ramaphosa said he also wanted to discuss trade with United States, and Mr. Trump looked visibly bothered as Mr. Ramaphosa talked about the benefits of U.S.-South Africa partnership. Mr. Trump shrugged and handed the South African president the articles he claimed detailed violence against white farmers.
“I want you to look good,” he said, as he turned back to his claims of land seizures in South Africa. “I don’t want you to look bad.”
John Eligon contributed reporting.
Zolan Kanno-Youngs and Edward Wong contributed reporting.
Erica L. Green is a White House correspondent for The Times, covering President Trump and his administration.
Zolan Kanno-Youngs is a White House correspondent for The Times, covering President Trump and his administration."