South Africa Prez's WH Visit Has 'Unmitigated Disaster' Potential

If you thought the February meeting at the White House between President Trump, Vice President JD Vance, and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky was contentious, get ready for what one former US official says may be an "unmitigated disaster." Politico reports that South African President Cyril Ramaphosa will pay a visit to the Oval Office on Wednesday, and Cameron Hudson, ex-chief of African affairs on the National Security Council during George W. Bush's administration, says that the world leader may be "walking into a buzzsaw." A person identified only as an "administration insider" adds to the outlet, "It could go extra well or it could make Zelensky's visit look like a cakewalk."

• Meeting's purpose: Reuters notes that cajoling Trump to make deals with South Africa is at the top of Ramaphosa's mind. "The trade relations between South Africa and the United States will be the focus of my working visit here," Ramaphosa wrote on X on Tuesday. "We aim to strengthen and consolidate relations between our two countries."

• Racial tensions: Others, however, anticipate that Trump will steer the conversation to the "race-based discrimination" he accuses South Africa of engaging in, per the New York Times. The controversy ties into a land redistribution program put in place after apartheid ended in the '90s to address economic inequality, including a law recently passed that permits the government to seize land in the public interest without offering compensation; that law has been rarely used, per Politico.
• Trump moves: The US president cut all foreign aid to South Africa in February and expelled the nation's ambassador not long after that over the Trump administration's claims, spurring the US' controversial offer of refuge to dozens of white Afrikaners, an ethnic minority in South Africa.
• Native son: Another of South Africa's biggest critics? Elon Musk, who was born there and claims there's a "genocide" of white people going on in the country, per the BBC. Ramaphosa denies Trump's and Musk's claims.

• Appealing to Trump: NPR wonders if Ramaphosa can turn on the "charm" to woo the US president, with whispers emerging that he may drag South African pro golfers Ernie Els, who knows Trump, and Retief Goosen to the meeting. "Ramaphosa's appeal to Trump's love of golf ... is part of his efforts to avoid a public dressing down of the kind Trump gave to ... Zelensky," the Guardian notes.
• Master negotiator? Both NPR and the BBC have more on Ramaphosa's bargaining skills, born out of his time serving as the chief negotiator for the African National Congress, party of South Africa's first Black president, Nelson Mandela.
• Roadblocks? Despite those negotiating chops, Politico notes it may be an uphill climb, as South Africa "is the rare partner on the world stage that has managed to anger nearly every faction of Trump's party—from the MAGA acolytes fixated on South Africa's racial politics to more traditional Republicans who believe it has chosen the wrong side in the world's conflicts."

(More Cyril Ramaphosa stories.)