Here’s how Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has promised to remake the US’ top health agencies

Here’s how Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has promised to remake the US’ top health agencies
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. arrives before President-elect Donald Trump speaks during an America First Policy Institute gala at his Mar-a-Lago estate, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP)
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Updated 16 November 2024
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Here’s how Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has promised to remake the US’ top health agencies

Here’s how Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has promised to remake the US’ top health agencies
  • Kennedy, who has said “there’s no vaccine that is safe and effective,” would be in charge of appointments to the committee of influential panel experts who help set vaccine recommendations

WASHINGTON: Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an anti-vaccine activist and environmentalist, for years gained a loyal and fierce following with his biting condemnations of how the nation’s public health agencies do business.
And that’s put him on a direct collision course with some of the 80,000 scientists, researchers, doctors and other officials who work for the Department of Health and Human Services, especially with President-elect Donald Trump tapping him to head the agency.
If confirmed, Kennedy will control the world’s largest public health agency, and its $1.7 trillion budget.
The agency’s reach is massive. It provides health insurance for nearly half of the country — poor, disabled and older Americans. It oversees research of vaccines, diseases and cures. It regulates the medications found in medicine cabinets and inspects the foods that end up in cupboards.
A look at Kennedy’s comments about some of the agencies that fall within the HHS arena, and how he has said he plans to shake them up:
Food and Drug Administration
— “FDA’s war on public health is about to end,” he wrote on X in late October. “If you work for the FDA and are part of this corrupt system, I have two messages for you: 1. Preserve your records, and 2. Pack your bags.”
The FDA’s 18,000 staffers include career scientists, researchers, and inspectors responsible for the safety and effectiveness of prescription drugs, vaccines and other medical products. The agency also has broad oversight of a swath of consumer goods, including cosmetics, electronic cigarettes and most foods.
HHS has legal authority to reorganize the agency without congressional approval to maintain the safety of food, drugs, medical devices and other products.
And Kennedy has long railed against the FDA’s work on vaccines. During the COVID-19 epidemic, his nonprofit group, Children’s Health Defense, petitioned the FDA to halt the use of all COVID vaccines. The group has alleged that FDA is beholden to “big pharma” because it receives much of its budget from industry fees and some employees who have departed the agency have gone on to work for drugmakers.
His attacks have grown more sweeping, with Kennedy suggesting he will clear out “entire departments” at FDA, including the agency’s food and nutrition center. The program is responsible for preventing foodborne illness, promoting health and wellness, reducing diet-related chronic disease and ensuring chemicals in food are safe.
Last month, Kennedy threatened on social media to fire FDA employees for “aggressive suppression” of a host of unsubstantiated products and therapies, including stem cells, raw milk, psychedelics and discredited COVID-era treatments like ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine.
In the case of hydroxychloroquine, for example, the agency halted its emergency use after determining it wasn’t effective in treating COVID and raised the risk of potentially fatal heart events.
Consuming raw milk has long been regarded as risky by the FDA because it contains a host of bacteria that can make people sick and has been linked to hundreds of illness outbreaks.
If confirmed, Kennedy in principle could overturn almost any FDA decision. There have been rare cases of such decisions in previous administrations. Under both George W. Bush and Barack Obama, HHS overruled FDA approval decisions on the availability of emergency contraceptives.
Unwinding FDA regulations or revoking approval of longstanding vaccines and drugs would likely be more challenging. FDA has lengthy requirements for removing medicines from the market, which are based on federal laws passed by Congress. If the process is not followed, drugmakers could bring lawsuits that would need to work their way through the courts.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
— “On January 20, the Trump White House will advise all US water systems to remove fluoride from public water,” Kennedy wrote on social media in November.
The CDC’s fluoride guidance is just one recommendation the agency has made as part of its mission to protect Americans from disease outbreaks and public health threats.
The agency has a $9.2 billion core budget and more than 13,000 employees
Days before Trump’s victory, Kennedy said he would reverse the agency’s recommendations around fluoride in drinking water, which the CDC currently recommends be at 0.7 milligrams per liter of water.
The recommendations have strengthened teeth and reduced cavities by replacing minerals lost during normal wear and tear. Splotchy teeth patterns have occurred with higher levels of fluoride, prompting the US government to lower its recommendations from 1.2 milligrams per liter of water in 2015.
Local and state governments control the water supply, with some states mandating fluoride levels through state law.
Kennedy, who has said “there’s no vaccine that is safe and effective,” would be in charge of appointments to the committee of influential panel experts who help set vaccine recommendations to doctors and the general public. Those include polio and measles given to infants and toddlers to protect against debilitating diseases to inoculations given to older adults to protect against threats like shingles and bacterial pneumonia as well as shots against more exotic dangers for international travelers or laboratory workers.
National Institutes of Health
— “We need to act fast,” Kennedy was reported to have said during an a Scottsdale, Arizona event over the weekend. “So that on Jan. 21, 600 people are going to walk into offices at NIH and 600 people are going to leave.”
The agency’s $48 billion budget funds medical research on cancers, vaccines and other diseases through competitive grants to researchers at institutions throughout the nation. The agency also conducts its own research with thousands of scientists working at NIH labs in Bethesda, Maryland.
Among advances that were supported by NIH money are a medication for opioid addiction, a vaccine to prevent cervical cancer, many new cancer drugs and the speedy development of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines.
In the past, Kennedy has criticized NIH for not doing enough to study the role of vaccines in autism.
Kennedy wants half of the NIH budget to go toward “preventive, alternative and holistic approaches to health,” he wrote in the Wall Street Journal in September. “In the current system, researchers don’t have enough incentive to study generic drugs and root-cause therapies that look at things like diet.”
Kennedy wants to prevent NIH from funding researchers with financial conflicts of interest, citing a 2019 ProPublica investigation that found more than 8,000 federally funded health researchers reported significant conflicts such as taking equity stakes in biotech companies or licensing patents to drugmakers.
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
— “If a doctor’s patient has diabetes or obesity, the doctor ought to be able to say, I’m going to recommend gym membership, and I’m going to recommend, good food and Medicaid ought to be able to finance those things the same as they would Ozempic,” Kennedy said during a Sept. 30 town hall in Philadelphia.
Kennedy has not focused as much on the agency that spends more than $1.5 trillion yearly to provide health care coverage for more than half of the country through Medicaid, Medicare or the Affordable Care Act.
Even as Trump and other Republicans have threatened some of that coverage, Kennedy has remained mum.
Instead, he’s been an outspoken opponent of Medicare or Medicaid covering expensive drugs that were developed to treat diabetes, like Ozempic, now also sold for weight loss as Wegovy. Those drugs are not widely covered by either program, but there’s some bipartisan support in Congress to change that.
Speaking during a congressional roundtable in September, Kennedy admonished some for supporting that effort, noting it could cost the US government trillions of dollars. An exact price tag for the US government to cover those drugs has not been determined.
Kennedy has said Medicare and Medicaid should, instead, provide gym memberships and pay for healthier foods for those enrollees.
“For half the price of Ozempic, we could purchase regeneratively raised, organic food for every American, three meals a day and a gym membership, for every obese American,” Kennedy said.


Two Israeli embassy staffers killed in Washington shooting, suspect held

Two Israeli embassy staffers killed in Washington shooting, suspect held
Updated 39 sec ago
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Two Israeli embassy staffers killed in Washington shooting, suspect held

Two Israeli embassy staffers killed in Washington shooting, suspect held
  • Staff members were shot ‘at close range’ while attending a Jewish event at the museum
  • US President Donald Trump condemns the ‘horrible’ killings

Two Israeli embassy staff were killed in a shooting outside an event at the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC, on Wednesday night, and a suspect is in custody, according to officials and media reports.

WASHINGTON: A man and a woman were shot and killed in the area of 3rd and F streets in Northwest which is near the museum, an FBI field office and the US attorney’s office, according to the reports.

Washington police chief Pamela Smith said a single suspect who was seen pacing outside the museum before the event was in custody. The suspect chanted “Free Palestine, Free Palestine,” in custody, she said.

Tal Naim Cohen, a spokesperson for the Israeli embassy in Washington, said two of its staff members were shot “at close range” while attending a Jewish event at the museum.

The Israeli embassy did not immediately respond to questions about the shooter, the victims or the motive for the attack.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem confirmed two Israeli embassy staff members were killed.

“We are actively investigating and working to get more information to share,” Noem wrote in a post on X.

“We will bring this depraved perpetrator to justice.”

Trump condemns ‘horrible D.C. killings’ based on ‘antisemitism’

US President Donald Trump condemned on Thursday the “horrible” killings of two Israeli embassy staffers outside a Jewish museum in Washington.

“These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW!” he posted on his Truth Social platform.

“Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA.”

FBI Director Kash Patel said he and his team had been briefed on the shooting.

“While we’re working with [Metropolitan Police Department] to respond and learn more, in the immediate, please pray for the victims and their families,” he wrote on X.

Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, called the shooting “a depraved act of anti-Semitic terrorism.”

“Harming diplomats and the Jewish community is crossing a red line,” Danon said in a post on X. “We are confident that the US authorities will take strong action against those responsible for this criminal act.”

Attorney General Pam Bondi and US Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro were on the scene of the shooting.

The Metropolitan Police Department declined to comment, saying a press conference would be held shortly.


State Department refugee office to assume USAID’s disaster aid role, says cable

State Department refugee office to assume USAID’s disaster aid role, says cable
Updated 22 May 2025
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State Department refugee office to assume USAID’s disaster aid role, says cable

State Department refugee office to assume USAID’s disaster aid role, says cable
  • US overseas missions told to consult with the bureau, called PRM, on foreign disaster declarations
  • Trump’s dismantling of USAID has seen thousands of contractors fired and billions of dollars in programs canceled

WASHINGTON: The State Department office that handles refugee issues and works to cut illegal migration will lead the US response to overseas disasters, according to excerpts from an internal department cable, a role for which experts say it lacks the knowhow and personnel.
The Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, known as PRM, is assuming that function from the US Agency for International Development, the main US foreign aid agency that the Trump administration has been dismantling, say the excerpts reviewed by Reuters.
USAID’s gutting — largely overseen by billionaire Elon Musk as part of US President Donald Trump’s drive to shrink the federal government — has already led to what many experts called the administration’s late and inadequate response to a serious earthquake in Myanmar on March 25.
The excerpts come from a cable known as an ALDAC, which stands for “All Diplomatic and Consular Posts,” sent this week to US embassies and other diplomatic posts worldwide.
Reuters could not learn the precise date of the ALDAC.
Under the new arrangement, all US overseas missions should consult with PRM on foreign disaster declarations, said the cable.
“With approval from PRM based on established criteria for international disaster assistance, up to $100,000 can be issued to support the initial response,” it continued. “Additional resources may be forthcoming based on established humanitarian need” in consultation with other State Department offices.
The State Department did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
A source familiar with the matter confirmed on condition of anonymity the authenticity of the excerpts.
Only 20 experts out of the roughly 525 who did the work at USAID’s Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance and its Office of US Foreign Disaster Relief are being hired by PRM, the source said.
But, the source continued, the number is far from adequate and the PRM leadership has “no concept of how to” mount responses to major overseas disasters.
“They do not understand disaster response,” said the source.
“It’s a joke. It’s ridiculous,” said Jeremy Konyndyk, a former director of the Office of US Foreign Disaster Relief who serves as president of Refugees International, an advocacy organization. “PRM is not an operational entity. They do important stuff but this is not what they do.”
In past years, the US has regularly deployed some of the world’s most skilled rescue workers quickly to save lives in response to tsunamis, earthquakes and other disasters.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has rejected criticism of the administration response to the earthquake in Myanmar. He said it was a difficult place to work, the military junta does not like the US and it was unfair that the US has provided most international humanitarian aid.
Konyndyk warned that with the approaching Caribbean hurricane season the US can no longer mobilize the world-leading Disaster Assistance Response Teams (DARTs) it once could to help with serious disasters on this side of the globe.
“The mechanics of how DARTs work cannot be replicated in PRM,” Konyndyk said. “They are just trying to create a Potemkin DART.”
The Trump administration’s dismantlement of USAID has seen thousands of contractors fired, most of the 10,000 staff placed on administrative leave and facing termination, and billions of dollars in life-saving programs for tens of millions of people canceled. One cable excerpt said that in the event of an overseas disaster, PRM may call on what’s left of USAID’s Bureau of Humanitarian Assistance to mobilize the remnants of its staff “to provide the most efficient and effective response.”


 


The Ambush Office: Trump’s Oval becomes test of nerve for world leaders

The Ambush Office: Trump’s Oval becomes test of nerve for world leaders
Updated 22 May 2025
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The Ambush Office: Trump’s Oval becomes test of nerve for world leaders

The Ambush Office: Trump’s Oval becomes test of nerve for world leaders
  • Trump has turned what were staid diplomatic “photo sprays” into punishing, hour-long tests of nerve in the heart of the US presidency

WASHINGTON: For world leaders an invitation to the Oval Office used to be a coveted prize. Under Donald Trump it’s become a ticket to a brutal political ambush.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa became the latest victim in a long line that started with Trump’s notorious row with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky in February.
Trump has turned what were staid diplomatic “photo sprays” under his predecessor Joe Biden into punishing, hour-long tests of nerve in the heart of the US presidency, played out on live television.

The sight has become all too familiar — a world leader perched nervously on the edge of their gold-upholstered chair in front of the famed fireplace, waiting to see what happens.
Will the 78-year-old Republican lay on the charm? Will he show off the new gold-plated decor he has been proudly installing in the Oval? Will he challenge his guest on tariffs or trade or US military assistance?
Or will he simply tear into them?
Nobody knows before they get there. All they know is that when the cameras are allowed into the most exclusive room in the White House, they will be treading the most perilous of political tightropes.
And the hot, confined space of the Oval Office adds to the pressure-cooker environment as the unpredictable billionaire seeks to wrongfoot his guests and gain the upper hand.

Trump set the benchmark when he hosted Zelensky on February 28.
Tensions over Trump’s sudden pivot toward Russia spilled into the open as a red-faced US president berated the Ukrainian leader and accused him of being ungrateful for US military aid against Russia.

US President Donald Trump berating Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky at the Oval Office in Washington on February 28, 2025. (AFP)

Many wondered if it was a deliberate ambush — especially as Vice President JD Vance appeared to step in to trigger the row.
Whether or not it was on purpose, the goal in foreign capitals ever since has been to “avoid a Zelensky.”
But Ramaphosa’s visit to the Oval on Wednesday was the closest yet to a repeat — and this time it was clearly planned.
Ramaphosa arrived with top South African golfers Ernie Els and Retief Goosen in tow, hoping to take the edge off the golf-mad Trump’s unfounded claims of a “genocide” against white South African farmers.
But his face was a picture of bemusement when after a question on the issue, Trump suddenly said to aides and said: “Turn the lights down, and just put this on.”
A video of South African politicians chanting “kill the farmer” began to play on a screen set up at the side of the room. A stunned Ramaphosa looked at the screen, then at Trump, and then back at the screen.
Yet unlike Zelensky, who argued back with an increasingly enraged Trump, the South African president largely stayed calm as he argued his case.
Nor was he asked to leave the White House as Zelensky was, causing the Ukrainian to miss lunch.

Other leaders have also done their homework. Some have emerged mostly unscathed, or even with some credit.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, despite some nervous body language, stood his ground against Trump’s calls for his country to become the 51st US state and insisted that his country was “never for sale.”
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer won over Trump with a letter from King Charles III, while French President Emmanuel Macron kept up his touch-feely bromance with the US president.
Trump’s ideological allies have often fared even better. El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele had a major Oval Office love-fest after agreeing to take migrants at a mega-prison in the Central American country.
But even some close allies have been wrongfooted.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received a warm welcome as the first foreign guest of Trump’s second term, but it was a different story when he returned in April.

During their second meeting at the Oval Office on April on April 7, 2025, US President Donald Trump surprised Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he announced that Washington was starting direct talks with Iran. (AFP)

Cameras in the Oval Office caught his stunned face when Trump announced that Washington was starting direct talks with Iran.
For Trump, though, it’s all part of a presidency that he increasingly treats like a reality show.
Trump himself quipped after the Zelensky meeting that it was “going to be great television,” and one of his advisers was just as explicit after the Ramaphosa meeting.
“This is literally being watched globally right now,” Jason Miller said on X, along with a picture of the encounter on multiple screens. “Ratings GOLD!“
 


Fire at historic Black church in Memphis was intentionally set, investigators say

Fire at historic Black church in Memphis was intentionally set, investigators say
Updated 22 May 2025
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Fire at historic Black church in Memphis was intentionally set, investigators say

Fire at historic Black church in Memphis was intentionally set, investigators say
  • The church was undergoing aenovation when flames engulfed it in the early hours of April 28
  • Investigators are searching for a person suspected of being involved with the blaze

MEMPHIS, Tennessee: A fire that severely damaged a historic Black church that served as the headquarters for a 1968 sanitation workers’ strike, which brought the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to Memphis, was intentionally set, investigators said Wednesday.
The fire at Clayborn Temple, which was undergoing a yearslong renovation, was set in the interior of the church, the Memphis Fire Department said in a statement. Investigators are searching for a person suspected of being involved with the blaze.
Flames engulfed the downtown church in the early hours of April 28. Later that day Memphis Fire Chief Gina Sweat said the inside of the building was a total loss but there was still hope that some of the facade could be salvaged.
The fire department said on May 14 that the building had been stabilized and investigators would use specialized equipment to study the fire’s cause.
“Clayborn Temple is sacred ground — home to generations of struggle, resilience and creativity,” Anasa Troutman, executive director of Historic Clayborn Temple, said Wednesday. “This act of violence is painful, but it will not break our spirit.”
Located just south of the iconic Beale Street, Clayborn Temple was built in 1892 as the Second Presbyterian Church and originally served an all-white congregation. In 1949 the building was sold to an African Methodist Episcopal congregation and given its current name.
Before the fire it was in the midst of a $25 million restoration project that aims to preserve the architectural and historical integrity of the Romanesque revival church, including the revival of a 3,000-pipe grand organ. The project also seeks to help revitalize the neighborhood with a museum, cultural programing and community outreach.
King was drawn to Memphis in 1968 to support some 1,300 predominantly Black sanitation workers who went on strike to protest inhumane treatment. Two workers had been crushed in a garbage compactor in 1964, but the faulty equipment had not been replaced.
On Feb. 1 of that year, two more men, Echol Cole, 36, and Robert Walker, 30, were crushed in a garbage truck compactor. The two were contract workers, so they did not qualify for worker’s compensation, and had no life insurance.
Workers then went on strike seeking to unionize and fighting for higher pay and safer working conditions. City officials declared the stoppage illegal and arrested scores of strikers and protesters.
Clayborn Temple hosted nightly meetings during the strike, and the movement’s iconic “I AM A MAN” posters were made in its basement. The temple was also a staging point for marches to City Hall, including one on March 28, 1968, that was led by King and turned violent when police and protesters clashed on Beale Street. One person was killed.
When marchers retreated to the temple, police fired tear gas inside and people broke some of the stained-glass windows to escape. King promised to lead a second, peaceful march in Memphis, but he was shot by a sniper while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel on April 4.
After King was assassinated and the strike ended with the workers securing a pay raise, the church’s influence waned. It fell into disrepair and was vacant for years before the renovation effort, which took off in 2017 thanks to a $400,000 grant from the National Park Service.
Clayborn Temple was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1979. A memorial to the sanitation workers, named “I AM A MAN Plaza,” opened on church grounds in 2018.
About $8 million had been spent on the renovations before the fire, and the exterior had been fully restored, Troutman said.
She said in a recent interview that two chimneys had to be demolished before investigators from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives could safely work on the property, but the church organ had been removed before the fire.
As the fire was burning, she said, people went to the “I AM A MAN” memorial and stood at a wall where the names of the striking sanitation workers are listed.
“I watched that wall turn into the Wailing Wall, because people were literally getting out of their cars, walking up to that wall and wailing, staring at the building on fire,” she said.


Trump confronts South African leader with baseless claims of the systematic killing of white farmers

Trump confronts South African leader with baseless claims of the systematic killing of white farmers
Updated 22 May 2025
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Trump confronts South African leader with baseless claims of the systematic killing of white farmers

Trump confronts South African leader with baseless claims of the systematic killing of white farmers
  • “People are fleeing South Africa for their own safety,” Trump said, as he showed video of a far-left politician chanting a song that includes the lyrics “kill the farmer”
  • Ramaphosa pushed back, saying “that is not government policy” and “our government policy is completely, completely against what he was saying”
  • Experts in South Africa say there is no evidence of whites being targeted for their race, although farmers of all races are victims of violent home invasions

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump used a White House meeting to forcefully confront South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, accusing the country of failing to address Trump’s baseless claim of the systematic killing of white farmers.
Trump even dimmed the lights of the Oval Office to play a video of a far-left politician chanting a song that includes the lyrics “kill the farmer.” He also leafed through news articles to underscore his point, saying the country’s white farmers have faced “death, death, death, horrible death.”
Trump had already cut all US assistance to South Africa and welcomed several dozen white South African farmers to the US as refugees as he pressed the case that a “genocide” is underway in the country.
The US president, since his return to office, has launched a series of accusations at South Africa’s Black-led government, claiming it is seizing land from white farmers, enforcing antiwhite policies and pursuing an anti-American foreign policy.
Experts in South Africa say there is no evidence of whites being targeted for their race, although farmers of all races are victims of violent home invasions in a country with a high crime rate.
“People are fleeing South Africa for their own safety,” Trump said. “Their land is being confiscated and in many cases they’re being killed.”

 

Ramaphosa pushed back against Trump’s accusation. The South African leader had sought to use the meeting to set the record straight and salvage his country’s relationship with the United States. The bilateral relationship is at its lowest point since South Africa enforced its apartheid system of racial segregation, which ended in 1994.
“We are completely opposed to that,” Ramaphosa said of the behavior alleged by Trump in their exchange. He added, “that is not government policy” and “our government policy is completely, completely against what he was saying.”
Trump was unmoved.
“When they take the land, they kill the white farmer,” he said.
Trump appeared prepared to confront Ramaphosa at the start of the meeting while journalists were present. Videos were cued up on a large TV set to show a clip of an opposition party leader, Julius Malema, leading an old anti-apartheid song.
The song has been contentious for years in the country because of its central lyrics “kill the Boer” and “shoot the Boer” — with Boer a word that refers to a white farmer. Malema, featured in the video, is not part of the country’s governing coalition.
Another clip played showed white crosses on the side of a road, described as a memorial for white farmers who were killed. Ramaphosa seemed baffled. “I’d like to know where that is, because this I’ve never seen.”
Trump kicked off the meeting by describing the South African president as a “truly respected man in many, many circles.” He added: “And in some circles he’s considered a little controversial.”
Ramaphosa chimed in, playfully jabbing back at a US president who is no stranger to controversy. “We’re all like that,” Ramaphosa said.

Trump issued an executive order in February cutting all funding to South Africa over some of its domestic and foreign policies. The order criticized the South African government on multiple fronts, saying it is pursuing antiwhite policies at home and supporting “bad actors” in the world like the Palestinian militant group Hamas and Iran.
Trump has falsely accused the South African government of rights violations against white Afrikaner farmers by seizing their land through a new expropriation law. No land has been seized and the South African government has pushed back, saying US criticism is driven by misinformation.
The Trump administration’s references to the Afrikaner people — who are descendants of Dutch and other European settlers — have also elevated previous claims made by Trump’s South African-born adviser Elon Musk and some conservative US commentators that the South African government is allowing attacks on white farmers in what amounts to a genocide.
The administration’s concerns about South African policies cut even deeper than the concerns about white farmers.
South Africa has also angered Trump over its move to bring charges at the International Court of Justice, accusing Israel of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. Ramaphosa has also faced scrutiny in Washington for his past connections to MTN Group, Iran’s second-largest telecom provider. It owns nearly half of Irancell, a joint venture linked with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Ramaphosa served as board chair of MTN from 2002 to 2013.
Ramaphosa came into the meeting looking to avoid the sort of contentious engagement that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky experienced during his February Oval Office visit, when the Ukrainian leader found himself being berated by Trump and Vice President JD Vance. That disastrous meeting ended with White House officials asking Zelensky and his delegation to leave the White House grounds.
The South African president’s delegation included golfers Ernie Els and Retief Goosen, a gesture to the golf-obsessed US president. Ramaphosa brought Trump a massive book about South Africa’s golf courses. He even told Trump that he’s been working on his golf game, seeming to angle for an invitation to the links with the president.

Businessman Johann Rupert speaks, next to golfers Retief Goosen and Ernie Els, during a meeting between Donald Trump and Cyril Ramaphosa, White House, Washington, D.C., May 21, 2025. (Reuters)

Luxury goods tycoon and Afrikaner Johann Rupert was also in the delegation to help ease Trump’s concerns that land was being seized from white farmers.
At one point, Ramaphosa called on Zingiswa Losi, the president of a group of South African trade unions, who told Trump it is true that South Africa is a “violent nation for a number of reasons.” But she told him it was important to understand that Black men and women in rural areas were also being targeted in heinous crimes.

“The problem in South Africa, it is not necessarily about race, but it’s about crime,” Losi said. “We are here to say how do we, both nations, work together to reset, to really talk about investment but also help … to really address the levels of crime we have in our country.”
Musk also attended Wednesday’s talks. He has been at the forefront of the criticism of his homeland, casting its affirmative action laws as racist against whites.

Billionaire Elon Musk (standing, extreme right) listens as President Donald Trump confronts South African President Cyril Ramaphosa with claims of "genocide" against white Afrikaners in his country. (AFP)

Musk has said on social media that his Starlink satellite Internet service isn’t able to get a license to operate in South Africa because he is not Black.
South African authorities say Starlink hasn’t formally applied. It can, but it would be bound by affirmative action laws in the communications sector that require foreign companies to allow 30 percent of their South African subsidiaries to be owned by shareholders who are Black or from other racial groups disadvantaged under apartheid.
The South African government says its long-standing affirmative action laws are a cornerstone of its efforts to right the injustices of the white minority rule of apartheid, which denied opportunities to Blacks and other racial groups.
Following the contentious exchange in front of the cameras, Trump hosted Ramaphosa for lunch and further talks.
Ramaphosa, speaking to reporters following his White House visit, downplayed Trump’s criticism, adding he believes “there’s doubt and disbelief in (Trump’s) head” about his genocide charge. He insisted they did not dwell on Trump’s concerns about white farmers in their private conversation.
“You wanted to see drama and something really big happening,” Ramaphosa told reporters following his White House visit. “And I’m sorry that we disappointed you somewhat when it comes to that.”