The United States said it would boycott the Group of 20 summit in South Africa later this month, with President Donald Trump citing disputed allegations of violence against white farmers as the reason for the unprecedented diplomatic move.
Trump said on Friday that no U.S. government officials would attend the Nov. 22-23 summit in Johannesburg, marking a rare break in G20 history as the world’s largest economy withdraws from the annual gathering of major economies.
“It is a total disgrace that the G20 will be held in South Africa,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform, alleging that Afrikaners face violence and land confiscation. Vice President JD Vance, who had been scheduled to lead the American delegation, cancelled his trip, a person familiar with his plans said on condition of anonymity.
The South African government has rejected the allegations. President Cyril Ramaphosa told Trump during a May meeting at the White House that reports of persecution against white farmers were “completely false,” according to officials.
Human rights organizations and international observers have found no evidence supporting claims of a “white genocide” in South Africa. Recent police data showed that farm-related murders accounted for 36 out of 19,696 total murders recorded between April and December 2024, representing less than 0.2% of the country’s homicides.
A South African court ruled in February 2025 that white genocide claims were “not real” and “clearly imagined,” according to court documents. South African police said in May that of six people killed on farms in the first quarter of 2025, only one victim was white.
“There is no credible evidence to support the claim that white farmers in South Africa are being systematically targeted as part of a campaign of genocide,” Anthony Kaziboni, a senior researcher at the University of Johannesburg, told reporters in May.
The Transvaal Agricultural Union of South Africa, a commercial farmers union sympathetic to Afrikaner farmers, recorded 32 farm murders in 2024, down from 50 in 2023, according to the organization’s data. The union’s figures show that many victims were Black South Africans.
South Africa’s government spokesperson Chrispin Phiri said in a statement that the country is “uniquely positioned to champion within the G20 a future of genuine solidarity” following its transition from apartheid to democracy.
Trump has made the issue a centerpiece of U.S. policy toward South Africa since taking office in January 2025. In May, his administration granted asylum to 59 white South Africans as part of a resettlement program. Last week, the administration announced it would cap refugee admissions at 7,500 for the 2026 fiscal year, with most spots reserved for white South Africans, according to a Federal Register notice.
The boycott extends beyond the leaders’ summit. Earlier in 2025, Secretary of State Marco Rubio declined to attend a G20 foreign ministers meeting in South Africa, citing the agenda’s focus on diversity, inclusion and climate change, according to administration officials.
During an economic speech in Miami this week, Trump said South Africa should be expelled from the G20, according to officials who attended the event.
The absence of the United States is expected to complicate economic discussions at the Johannesburg summit, which brings together leaders from the world’s 20 largest economies to coordinate policy on trade, development and financial stability.
Relations between Washington and Pretoria have deteriorated sharply in 2025, with the Trump administration freezing aid to South Africa and citing concerns over the country’s expropriation law, which allows for land redistribution in cases deemed to be in the public interest.
White South Africans make up about 7.3% of the population but own 72% of farmland, a disparity rooted in apartheid-era policies that ended in 1994, according to a 2017 South African government land audit.
