Trump Won't Commit To Attending G20 Summit In 'dangerous' South Africa

US President Donald Trump has not firmly committed to attending the G20 summit in November 2025 in South Africa, whose situation he says is very dangerous and very bad for a lot of people.

Last week, Secretary of State said he will not attend the groups foreign ministers meeting scheduled for 20 February in Johannesburg.

At a media briefing in the White House on Tuesday 11 February, Trump was asked whether he would attend the summit or not after Rubios announcement.

"Well, we'll see what happens. But the South African situation is very, very dangerous and very bad for a lot of people, he replied.

There's tremendously bad things going on and including the confiscation of property and worse, much worse than that. You know what I'm talking about. And we're not making any payment until we find out what's going on in South Africa."

Trump signed an executive order last week cutting funding to South Africa, citing the Expropriation Act, which he claimed enables the government to seize ethnic minority Afrikaners' agricultural property without compensation.

This Act follows countless government policies designed to dismantle equal opportunity in employment, education and business, and hateful rhetoric and government actions fuelling disproportionate violence against racially disfavoured landowners, he added, without providing evidence.

South Africa has rejected Trumps claims, saying the premise of his order lacked factual accuracy and fails to recognise South Africas profound and painful history of colonialism and apartheid.

We are concerned by what seems to be a campaign of misinformation and propaganda aimed at misrepresenting our great nation. It is disappointing to observe that such narratives seem to have found favour among decision-makers in the United States of America, the Department of International Relations and Cooperation said.

Meanwhile, China and the European Union EU have signalled support for South Africas G20 presidency. "We all know this is the first time the G20 has entered Africa, Chinese ambassador to South Africa Wu Peng told Business Times last week.