Featured Image Credit: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
Topics: Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Politics, US News, World News
Ella Scott
Topics: Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Politics, US News, World News
Elon Musk has been accused of ‘staring straight into the soul’ of the South African President amid a jaw-dropping Oval Office ‘ambush’ hosted by Donald Trump.
On Wednesday (May 21), a fiery match between Cyril Ramaphosa, the 5th President of South Africa and Trump, the 47th President of the United States, took place at the White House.
Ramaphosa, who hoped to discuss trade with the businessman, was blindsided when Trump began to discuss a list of concerns he had about the treatment of white South Africans.
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Amid the heated conversation, the Republican made baseless claims of a white genocide, showing printed news articles which he claimed proved his allegations, as per Reuters.
Trump then had the Oval Office’s lights dimmed so that a clip of a South African delegation rally could be played on a television.
The recording, made by South Africa’s minority political party, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EEF), included footage of an anti-apartheid song called ‘Shoot the Boer’ being sung by politician Julius Malema. It included lyrics about killing white farmers.
A video also showing white crosses was played, which Trump falsely alleged were the graves of white people murdered in South Africa.
These so-called ‘burial sites’ were actually used to represent both black and white farmers who had been killed in the country over the years, a protester previously disclosed to South Africa's public broadcaster, SABC.
The videos Trump showed during his meeting with Ramaphosa do not show evidence of a white genocide, despite him claiming: “Their land is being confiscated and in many cases they’re being killed."
“We are completely opposed to that,” Ramaphosa stated, adding that his government is 'completely, completely against what he was saying.’
The father-of-five made the genocidal claims in front of Elon Musk, Tesla CEO and the de facto head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
The 52-year-old was born in Pretoria, South Africa, and has previously discussed the myth of white genocide on social media.
Earlier this year, Musk directed a post at Ramaphosa, asking: “Why do you have openly racist ownership laws?”
Despite his strong feelings on the conspiracy theory that Trump was peddling during the meeting, the SpaceX founder remained quiet.
People have picked up on the billionaire’s demeanour, alleging he was ‘staring straight into the soul’ of the South African President.
The original claim comes from a now-viral TikTok video, which has garnered attention across the likes of Reddit and X.
“It had to have meant a lot to Elon Musk and I'm glad Trump spared him from having to speak about it. What an event. And what a time to live, seeing Trump do things like this,” one X user typed.
Another replied: “Yeah, that's a whole new level of intense eye contact, like whoa.”
A third commented: “What do you think the president of South Africa was thinking about Elon Musk?"
Someone else said: "Elon is a joke!,” while another wrote: “Damn @elonmusk looks hot when he’s p*ssed good thing I don’t know him, I’d get him mad at me selfishly just for an intense stare down session.”
While Trump acknowledged Musk's presence in the Oval Office during the event, he did indicate he was not trying to involve him in the issues he was alleging.
“Elon is from South Africa. I don't want to get Elon involved. That's all I have to do, get him into another thing,” he laughed.
“This is what Elon wanted. He came here on a different subject, sending rockets to Mars, he likes that subject better.”
Following the event, Ramaphosa told South African media that he had a ‘rather pleasant lunch’ with the Trump administration, where golf, trade and investment were discussed.
“I was rather pleased that there was a rather firm agreement and undertaking that we're going to continue engaging," he said, as per the BBC.
After insisting that his visit to the Oval Office was a ‘great success’, the politician added that he expects Trump to attend the G20 summit in Johannesburg later this year.