President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the US will not be inviting South Africa to participate in the Group of 20 summit to be held next year in Miami, escalating tensions between Washington and Pretoria.
Terming South Africa a country “not worthy” of membership anywhere, Trump said he will also “stop all payments and subsidies” to the country over its treatment of a US government representative at this year’s global meeting. This comes after the US boycotted the recently concluded G20 summit in Johannesburg, as a G20 founding member and the world’s largest economy.
The G20 summit concluded with an unexpected diplomatic standoff after host nation South Africa refused to hand over the rotating presidency in a traditional G20 gavel ceremony to the US, citing protocol norms and stating that it could not be handed over to a “junior” US representative.
The United States is due to assume the G20 presidency in 2026.
A White House official reportedly warned President Cyril Ramaphosa against “running his mouth” about the US and President Donald Trump. South Africa argued that because Washington chose to send a lower-ranking embassy official to the leaders’ summit, it would reciprocate with a similarly ranked delegation for the symbolic passing of the G20 gavel.
Trump said he refrained from sending an American delegation to South Africa, claiming it was because white Afrikaners were being violently persecuted.Trump in May, confronted South African President Ramaphosa with explosive and widely disputed claims of white genocide and land seizures during a tense White House meeting.
This claim has been rejected by South Africa as baseless; the country, mired for decades in racial apartheid, strongly denied the allegation.
In a social media post, Trump said South Africa had refused to hand over its G20 hosting responsibilities to a senior representative of the US Embassy when the summit ended over the weekend.
“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,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “South Africa has demonstrated to the world that they are not a country worthy of membership anywhere,” he added, “and we are going to stop all payments and subsidies to them, effective immediately.”
By tradition, the host country hands over a symbolic wooden gavel to the nation assuming the G20 presidency.. The US had intended to send a representative from its embassy, but South Africa refused, saying it would have been an insult for Ramaphosa to hand over the gavel to a junior official.
