Ramaphosa had hoped his talks with Trump in the White House on Wednesday would help reset relations with the United States that have nosedived since the US president took office in January.

But Trump spent most of the conversation confronting his visitor with false claims that South Africa's white minority farmers are being systematically murdered and having their land seized. South Africa has one of the highest murder rates in the world, but the overwhelming majority of victims are Black.

With reporters present, Trump had staff put the four-minute video on a large screen, saying it showed black South African politicians calling for the persecution of white people.

"You do allow them to take land, and then when they take the land, they kill the white farmer, and when they kill the white farmer, nothing happens to them," Trump said.

Trump also showed news clippings that he said backed up his claims -- although one actually featured a photo from the Democratic Republic of Congo.

"Death, death, death. Horrible death," said Trump.

Trump's administration earlier this month granted refugee status to more than 50 white Afrikaners, despite the fact that it has effectively stopped taking asylum seekers from the rest of the world.

"He didn’t get Zelenskyed. That's what we have to hang on to," Rebecca Davis of the national Daily Maverick, herself a white South African, wrote in a column.

"It was impossible not to feel for Ramaphosa, who had been bombarded with messaging before the trip that he should under no circumstances lose his cool (or) rise to the bait. So he didn't." 

In a meeting at the White House in February, Trump and Vice President JD Vance berated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Zelensky heatedly tried to argue his case.

For some, though, Ramaphosa's composure raised the question of what he had achieved by subjecting himself to that onslaught.

“I don't think it was the right call. I don't think we need to explain ourselves to USA," 40-year-old Sobelo Motha, a member of a shopkeepers' union, said on the streets of Johannesburg.

"We ... we know there's no white genocide. So for me, it was pointless exercise."

The South African president arrived prepared for an aggressive reception, bringing popular white South African golfers in his delegation and hoping to discuss trade.

But in a choreographed performance, Trump pounced, moving quickly to a list of concerns about the treatment of white South Africans, which he punctuated by playing a video and leafing through a stack of articles that he said proved his allegations.

Foreign ministry spokesperson Chrispin Phiri defended Ramaphosa's handling of the encounter.

"Most importantly, the two presidents engaged," he told Reuters by telephone.

"It's not in the president's (Ramaphosa's) nature to be combative. (He) looks at issues calmly, matter-of-factly. I think that's what we (should) expect of our presidents," he added.

Many in South Africa were baffled that the world's most powerful man could believe easily disproved claims about ethnic cleansing of white South Africans that circulate on far-right social media. 

Most victims of violent crime in South Africa are Black and poor. South African police recorded 26,232 murders nationwide in 2024, of which 44 were linked to farming communities. Of those, eight of the victims were farmers.

"I think Trump is naive and he's dealing with America's issues. So I don't think he has time to actually verify the facts," said Kudakwashi Mgwariri, a student at the University of the Witwatersrand.