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Opinion
Trump’s Oval Office smackdowns reflect alarming turn in US diplomacy
The US president’s meeting with South Africa’s leader was the latest example of erratic American diplomacy, awash in conspiracy theories
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Jianlu Bi is a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy in Focus think tank at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, DC, and a research fellow at the Charhar Institute in Beijing.
The Oval Office, traditionally a bastion of decorum and a revered setting for international diplomacy, has seen a fundamental reshaping during US President Donald Trump’s second term. Invitations to the president’s office, once highly sought after to forge alliances and tackle global challenges, have become a perilous trap, a Hunger Games of world politics where foreign dignitaries risk public humiliation and the undermining of their nations’ interests.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa was the latest leader to be ambushed during a routine diplomatic meeting. In an astonishing display, Trump played a video and presented newspaper clippings, propagating the unfounded conspiracy theory of “white genocide” and land confiscation in South Africa. He further claimed that many South Africans, fearing for their lives and property, were seeking refuge in the United States.
Ramaphosa, visibly taken aback but composed, immediately refuted these baseless allegations, emphasising South Africa’s constitutional guarantees for land ownership and highlighting the fact that most violent crime victims in his country were black. What was intended as a constructive dialogue to advance investment and trade quickly descended into a tense confrontation, casting a long, dark shadow over the visit.
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