Golfer Ernie Els speaks in the Oval Office during a meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., May 21, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
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David Frum, an Atlantic writer who has long identified as a conservative Republican but has become an outspoken critic of the modern Republican Party under Donald Trump, joined CNN anchor Erin Burnett on Wednesday on her show "OutFront" to discuss Trump's jaw-dropping meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.
"So David, you know, you watched the South African president there—I mean, he was really direct and really clear and really firm. But he did it in a calm way," Burnett began. "And he didn’t mince his words. What went through your mind as you watched all that—Trump holding up a piece of paper and saying these people are the victims of genocide—the South African president just calmly saying 'no'?"
Frum likened Trump's bizarre meeting to a new reality TV show.
"Well, it looks like we were maybe promoting or testing a new reality show in the White House: "Surprise the World Leader" —where world leaders will come for prizes, or else they'll get a goat behind curtain number three if they’re on the president’s bad mood. So we’ve had bad surprises for [Ukraine President Volodymyr] Zelensky and Ramaphosa, but maybe there’s a nice surprise for you."
Frump said typically, meetings with world leaders are highly "choreographed" with any areas of disagreement generally "quite small."
"They are to be worked out at the highest level. And the meetings are there for a purpose. In this case, the president just sandbagged somebody," Frum railed.
The Atlantic writer acknowledged the United States has legitimate gripes with the country, as South Africa has led efforts to bring a false accusation against Israel.
"That’s a real issue," he conceded.
But not what Trump peddled.
"But on the farmers? Ramaphosa is in trouble at home from the person quoted in that video because he has been a friend to commercial farmers, many of them white," said Frum.
Trump confronted Ramaphosa with a video montage and images alleging widespread persecution and killings of white farmers in South Africa. Trump asserted that white farmers are "escaping South Africa" due to targeted violence and that they are victims of "genocide," a claim he has repeated.
Ramaphosa strongly refuted Trump’s claims, saying that while violent crime is a serious issue in the country, there is no evidence of a genocide against white farmers.
