Can Trump ban South Africa from 2026 G20 summit, as he says he’ll? | Donald Trump News | USAEMALL.com

United States President Donald Trump has announced he will block South Africa from attending next year’s G20 summit, as relations between the two nations continue to sour.

The Group of 20 comprises 19 leading economies plus the European Union – and, now, the African Union. Countries within the group meet throughout the year, but an annual summit is also held, hosted by the country holding the presidency of the group.

Trump chose to boycott this year’s G20 summit, which was hosted by South Africa in Johannesburg last week. He has accused the country of conducting what he calls a “white genocide” against white farmers and communities.

The US is next in line to take the group’s presidency and will host the G20 summit next year.

In a post earlier this month on his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump said South Africa’s role as host of this year’s summit, the first to be held in an African nation, was a “total disgrace”.

“Afrikaners are being killed and slaughtered, and their land and farms are being illegally confiscated,” Trump wrote of the white community of people who descended from Dutch settlers and French and German immigrants, reiterating a claim that South Africa has condemned and for which there is no evidence.

“No US Government Official will attend as long as these Human Rights abuses continue. I look forward to hosting the 2026 G20 in Miami, Florida!” he added.

On Wednesday, in another Truth Social post, Trump announced that South Africa would not be invited to the next G20 summit.

What has Trump said and why?

With no senior US officials attending the summit, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa ended the two-day meeting last weekend without passing on the gavel, as per tradition, to the next country taking the presidency.

“This gavel of this G20 summit formally closes this summit and now moves on to the next president of the G20, which is the United States, where we shall see each other again next year,” Ramaphosa said in his closing remarks on Sunday.

While Trump sent an official from the US embassy in South Africa at the last minute, he claimed Ramaphosa refused to hand the gavel to that person.

On Wednesday, Trump also repeated that the US had not attended the summit because, he said, the South African government had refused to “acknowledge or address the horrific Human Right Abuses endured by Afrikaners, and other descendants of Dutch, French, and German settlers”.

“To put it more bluntly, they are killing white people, and randomly allowing their farms to be taken from them. Perhaps, worst of all, the soon to be out of business New York Times and the Fake News Media won’t issue a word against this genocide,” he said.

“At the conclusion of the G20, South Africa refused to hand off the G20 Presidency to a Senior Representative from our US Embassy, who attended the Closing Ceremony. 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, Florida, next year.”

“South Africa has demonstrated to the World they are not a country worthy of Membership anywhere, and we are going to stop all payments and subsidies to them, effective immediately. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” the president added.

The US is South Africa’s second-largest single-country trading partner after China. In 2024, total goods and services trade between the two countries reached an estimated $26.2bn, according to the Office of the US Trade Representative.

How has South Africa responded?

In a statement issued by Ramaphosa’s office on Thursday, Trump’s decision was noted as “regrettable”.

“South Africa is a member of the G20 in its own name and right. Its G20 membership is at the behest of all other members.

“South Africa is a sovereign constitutional democratic country and does not appreciate insults from another country about its worth in participating in global platforms. South Africa will never insult another country or its standing in the community of nations.

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

What is the G20?

In 1999, the group was formed by 19 countries and the EU as a forum to discuss global economic issues following the 1997 Asian financial crisis.

Its other members are Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Turkiye, the United Kingdom, as well as the African Union, which joined as the 21st member at the 2023 summit in India.

Other countries are also often invited to the summit; in total, 42 attended this year. Poland’s President Karol Nawrocki said in September that Trump had already invited him to next year’s meeting.

Until now, no member state has ever been barred from the summit.

However, in 2022, then-US President Joe Biden said Russia should be banned from the G20 due to its invasion of Ukraine, but that did not happen.

On that occasion, Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is subject to an arrest warrant by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over the war in Ukraine, dispatched his Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov to attend instead.

At this year’s meeting in Johannesburg, the deputy head of the presidential administration, Maxim Oreshkin, attended. 

Separately, Russia was expelled from the Group of Seven (G7), then called the G8, in 2014, following its annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.

Can Trump ban a G20 member from the annual summit?

Not officially. One G20 member state cannot unilaterally ban another from the summit since it is an informal grouping of states and bodies, and there is no formal mechanism to do so.

Still, Trump could potentially deny US visas to representatives of South Africa, thereby banning them from the country and, by extension, the summit.

Why does Trump claim South Africa is engaged in a ‘white genocide’?

Since his return to office in January, Trump has frequently alleged that white farmers in South Africa are being killed in what he calls a “genocide”.

This allegation has been refuted by both South African officials and Afrikaner groups, but Trump has remained resolute in his claims.

Unfounded rumours of a so-called “white genocide” have circulated among minority white South African communities since the end of apartheid in South Africa in 1994. For the past decade, they have spread to far-right forums in the US and garnered vocal support from Trump ally and South African-born tech billionaire Elon Musk.

Trump bases his allegations on South Africa’s passing of a new law seeking to address disparities in land ownership. Three-quarters of land is still owned by the country’s white minority, more than 30 years after the end of apartheid, but South Africa says it is not targeting white landowners with the new law.

In February, the Trump administration cut foreign aid to South Africa, a move which could be a serious threat to the nation’s HIV response, according to experts.

He also signed the “Addressing Egregious Actions of the Republic of South Africa” Executive Order in response to the country’s Expropriation Act, which allows for land to be seized and redistributed.

In the order, Trump condemned the alleged government policies that dismantled “equal opportunity in employment, education, and business” and fuelled “disproportionate violence against racially disfavoured landowners”.

Trump also offered to resettle Afrikaners in the US, and in May, 59 white South Africans arrived in the US as part of a refugee programme.

The order also condemned South Africa’s decision to launch a genocide case at the ICJ against Israel over its genocidal war on Gaza.

During a heated exchange with Trump at the White House in May, Ramaphosa denied claims of a “white genocide” and said South Africa generally experiences high rates of violent crime, which affects all ethnicities.

In October, Trump announced an annual refugee cap of 7,500 for the 2026 fiscal year, with priority to be given to white South Africans.