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During a tense Oval Office meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, U.S. President
Donald Trump held up a printout of an article that included a screenshot he claimed showed mass
burials of white South African farmers. Trump asserted, “These are all white farmers that are being
buried,” using the image as part of a broader argument alleging racially motivated violence against
white citizens in South Africa. However, the image Trump displayed was not taken in South Africa at
all.
According to CNN, the photo originated from a Reuters video published on February 3, showing
humanitarian workers lifting body bags in the city of Goma in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The
footage was captured following deadly clashes involving the M23 rebel group, which is backed by
Rwanda. Reuters’ fact-checking team later confirmed the misidentification.
The article Trump referenced came from American Thinker, a conservative U.S. blog, and discussed
racial tensions in both South Africa and Congo. While the post itself did not label the image
specifically, it included a link to a YouTube video about the Congo crisis that featured the Reuters
footage. That YouTube clip credited Reuters but did not clarify the context of the image.
The White House did not respond to media inquiries regarding Trump’s mischaracterization. Andrea
Widburg, the post’s author and managing editor at American Thinker, told Reuters that Trump had
“misidentified the image.” She defended the article’s broader claims, however, saying it addressed
rising tensions and challenges faced by white South Africans under what she described as
Ramaphosa’s “dysfunctional, race-obsessed Marxist government.”
The footage in question was filmed exclusively by Reuters video journalist Djaffar Al Katanty during
the aftermath of an M23 attack on Goma. According to Al Katanty, gaining access to the scene
required coordination with the International Committee of the Red Cross and negotiations with M23
rebels themselves. “Only Reuters has video,” he said of the footage that Trump misused.
Al Katanty expressed shock upon seeing his work misrepresented on such a high-profile platform.
“That day, it was extremely difficult for journalists to get in,” he said. “To see the image taken out of
context and shown by the president of the United States as something it’s not was deeply
unsettling.”
