Other images displayed by Trump during meeting with South African president Cyril Ramaphosa were false or misleading
The evidence of supposed mass killings of white South Africans presented by Donald Trump in a tense White House meeting on Wednesday were in some cases images from the Democratic Republic of Congo, while footage shown during the meeting was falsely portrayed as depicting “burial sites”.
“These are all white farmers that are being buried,” said Trump, holding up a print-out of an article accompanied by a picture during the contentious Oval Office meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.
The picture accompanying the article was in fact a screengrab of a video published by Reuters on 3 February and subsequently verified by the news agency’s fact check team, showing humanitarian workers lifting body bags in the Congolese city of Goma. The image was pulled from Reuters footage shot after deadly battles with Rwanda-backed M23 rebels.
What about those that weren’t from Congo?
The one was a picture of a large number of crosses which Trump said was a burial site for 1000s of white farmers, when it was in fact a memorial following the death of 2 farmers. The memorial was intended to represent all farm deaths of all races. Farm deaths are an issue but the victims are of all races - they kill the farmers, their families and the workers.
There was a video of a political leader singing a song that translates to “Kill the Boer” i.e. kill the white Afrikaans farmer. This video is: a) more than a decade old, b) from a rally of a minority opposition party i.e. not the political party of the people Trump was meeting, c) from a political party that has been losing votes in recent elections, led by someone who was expelled from the ruling party, d) is of a historic protest song from the apartheid era i.e. more than 30 years ago.
This video resulted in a court case, where the court concluded that a “reasonably well-informed person” would understand that when a protest song is sung “even by politicians, the words are not meant to be understood literally, nor is the gesture of shooting to be understood as a call to arms or violence.”
This video was a big deal at the time but it’s not current, not representative of the government’s view, and the person depicted in it is increasingly being sidelined in South African politics.
While Trump is definitely exaggerating what’s happening there, I think you’re downplaying it a bit too much.
There were multiple videos, but the concerning part here is it looks like even in recent rallies Julius Malema has continued with this chant: https://web.archive.org/web/20250502020122/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/02/world/africa/south-africa-kill-boer-song.html
It is ridiculous that there were no dates/locations for anything in these clips given what Trump is trying to claim here.
Yes, but it’s worth pointing out that the EFF is still one of the more popular parties. The 3rd or 4th largest party from what I can tell based on this list (and from what other articles have mentioned). https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_political_parties_in_South_Africa
It is good to hear that someone like him is increasingly being sidelined.
Thanks for pointing out the court case. After a little digging it looks like the court has ruled on this more than once. Back in 2011 they found him guilty of hate speech for the chant: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-safrica-malema/south-africa-court-finds-malema-guilty-of-hate-speech-idUSTRE78B2DD20110912/
And in 2022 the courts ruled that the chant should not be taken literally.
That chant when coupled with statements to his supporters such as “never be afraid to kill” is still alarming.
It reeks of “it was just a joke, bro” energy and what fascists try to do when they are testing the waters.
“Liar tells several lies, claims they are truth.”
“Okay, but what else did he say? Maybe we should listen to the liar?”
Such as?
This question really shouldn’t be that hard to answer. Here’s the video that was shown at the Whitehouse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLDl3mblm-c
Video of the full meeting (I set the link to skip ahead to the part where the TV is brought in) if you want to see President Cyril Ramaphosa’s reaction to it: https://odysee.com/@NTD:2/live-trump-holds-bilateral-meeting-2:5?t=1313
Besides the video of the crosses along the road, there are video clips of the Economic Freedom Fighter’s leader, Julius Malema calling for a bloody revolution as well as chanting with large crowds to “kill the Boer” (white man/farmer).
There are no timestamps/locations for any of the video clips, but it looks like this guy founded the Economic Freedom Fighters back in 2013.
Edit: typo
Yeah, all of this is explained in the article.
Yes and you were the one asking the questions about things that are explained in the article so I responded with some context.
You’ve misread the conversation. I’m not the one asking for the obvious.
And i like your comment, btw, it’s well written.
Please explain.
Edit: I see your edit… But I must still be misreading the conversation.
Even after double checking the username, you were the one that said, “Such as?”
I edited my reply a little.
The person i was talking to is the one that hasn’t read the article and it’s asking questions in bad faith. I was asking them to clarify what was confusing them, basically, Knowing they were asking in bad faith.
Seeing your edit:
Yes. Such as what are you talking about? Because the article clearly explained it. If you follow the conversation it’s clear what i was asking for.
It doesn’t matter. They’re still denying trump lied about it, so I was right in my original assumptions of them.
Shared with me from a South African friend. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqvp1FOir4Y
Oops, you weren’t supposed to ask about those.
Which ones are those? Care to point them out?
So far only one of them appeared to be from congo. What about the rest? Are we going to throw it all out because one was from Congo, and because a memorial mistaken for a burial site (literally makes no difference)
It’s a government official making a claim based on easily verifiable bad evidence, so if the whole thing wasn’t suspect before, it most certainly is now, right? Why should we give the benefit of the doubt? Not only has the administration not earned that right, they’ve shown over and over again that they don’t extend that benefit to anyone else.
It fucking amazes me that we don’t hold our leaders to a higher standard, and it worries me that people don’t seem to want to.
If it is easily verifiable, then how about we verify it right now? So what about those other cases not from Congo?
Because people are dead, and it is the choice between “ingore” or “start and investigation”
I agree trump is a hack, but I want to know about those other cases.
Try reading the article for starters.
I did read it. It is one of those articles with a clear political bias, trying to spin the story as if all of it is false because one thing was false. Anyone eating it up is doing so because they either can’t think for themselves or don’t want to.
Are you done following me around in this thread?
Ah so you’re just a lie spreading propagandist
What are the other ones exactly?
That’s what we’re asking. Can you stop?
Im asking you which you’re talking about. Everyone else already knows the answer.
“The evidence of supposed mass killings of white South Africans presented by Donald Trump in a tense White House meeting on Wednesday were in some cases images from the Democratic Republic of Congo, while footage shown during the meeting was falsely portrayed as depicting “burial sites”.”
“In some cases” means less than a majorty of the cases. We’re talking about the rest. Do you and “everyone else” know something about these other ones we don’t?
When we know multiple pictures are bullshit it makes the rest of them questionable by default.
Are you trying to claim the made up conspiracy theories about white genocide are in fact real?
Don’t bother, these people didn’t even bother to read the article
deleted by creator