An image used by U.S President Donald Trump as evidence of a white genocide in South Africa, during a meeting with its president Cyril Ramaphosa this week, was pulled from footage captured in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a Reuters fact-checking report found.
The news agency confirmed that the photograph Trump showed Ramaphosa was a screenshot from a Reuters video that was published on Feb. 3.
According the agency, the video shows humanitarian workers carrying body bags in the Congolese city of Goma.
Trump’s printed image was taken from footage shot following deadly battles with Rwanda-backed M23 rebels in that region, and was filmed by Reuters video journalist Djaffar Al Katanty.
“That day, it was extremely difficult for journalists to get in…I had to negotiate directly with M23 and coordinate with the ICRC to be allowed to film,” Al Katanty said.
“Only Reuters has video,” he continued, adding that it was quite a shock to see the U.S. president use his image to make unsubstantiated claims.
(L-R) South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa, U.S. President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnik speak to journalists in the Oval Office at the White House on May 21, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images
“In view of all the world, President Trump used my image, used what I filmed in DRC to try to convince President Ramaphosa that in his country, white people are being killed by Black people,” Al Katanty said.
However, Trump said in the Oval Office that the image showed the bodies of farmers being persecuted in South Africa because they are white, a conspiracy theory which has circulated among the far-right for years and is based on false claims.
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The photo shown to Ramaphosa by Trump was published alongside a blog post written by American Thinker, a conservative online publication covering violent conflicts and racial tensions in South Africa and Congo, which in turn pulled the image from a Reuters video report on YouTube.
In a written statement to the news agency, the author and managing editor of the American Thinker article, Andrea Widburg, said that president Trump had “misidentified the image,” but added that her post referred to what it says is Ramaphosa’s “dysfunctional, race-obsessed Marxist government,” and that its content “pointed out the increasing pressure placed on white South Africans.”
The Trump administration did not reply to a Reuters request for comment.
The president also showed Ramaphosa a five-minute video which he said was further proof a white genocide in the country.
The footage showed a populist politician playing a controversial anti-apartheid song that includes lyrics about killing a farmer.
“People are fleeing South Africa for their safety,” Trump said following the brief screening, before insisting that the video depicted the graves of a thousand white farmers.
However, according to The Guardian, the footage was taken at a highway connecting the small towns of Newcastle and Normande in South Africa and showed a memorial, not a burial site.
Furthermore, Rob Hoatson, who set up the memorial to capture public attention, told the BBC it was not a burial site.
Shortly after the meeting, the White House posted the video to its official X account . (Nothing presented in the video has been proven or corroborated by any authority.)
During the meeting, Ramaphosa said he was visiting Washington to “reset” and “recalibrate” the relationship between the U.S. and South Africa and to advance trade relations.
Tensions heightened between the two nations earlier this month after president Trump granted American citizenship to a group of white South African Afrikaners who claim they were being persecuted at home.
The first group of Afrikaners from South Africa to arrive for resettlement listen to remarks from US Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau and US Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Troy Edgar (both out of frame), after they arrived at Washington Dulles International Airport in Dulles, Virginia, on May 12, 2025.
SAUL LOEB / Getty Images
Meanwhile, Trump said the purpose of their encounter was to smooth over fears about the African nation, stating, “We have a lot of people who are very concerned with regards to South Africa.”
Before Trump could answer a question put to him by an NBC reporter regarding his white genocide claims and how he could be convinced no such tragedy was taking place, Ramaphosa interjected.
“I can answer that,” he said, adding that Trump must listen, first and foremost, to the stories and testimonies of the South African delegation present in the Oval Office.
— with files from The Associated Press and Reuters
© 2025 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
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