US President Donald Trump has escalated his public feud with South Africa, declaring that the country will be barred from attending the 2026 G20 Leaders’ Summit in Miami, a dramatic announcement made barely days after Johannesburg successfully hosted the 2025 gathering.
Although South Africa is one of the founding members of the G20, Trump once again took aim at Pretoria in a late-night social media post, reviving his disproven claims about ‘white genocide’ and questioning why SA holds a seat in the global economic forum. He went a step further by threatening to cut ‘all payments and subsidies’ to the country.
‘At my direction, South Africa will not be receiving an invitation to the 2026 G20, which will be hosted in the Great City of Miami, Florida next year,’ Trump wrote on Truth Social.
‘South Africa has demonstrated to the World they are not a country worthy of Membership anywhere, and we are going to stop all payments and subsidies to them, effective immediately,’ he added.
Officials in Pretoria had reportedly been warned months earlier, including by former finance minister Trevor Manuel, that Trump’s administration might freeze SA out of next year’s summit, as per Moneyweb. Still, the Presidency expressed disappointment shortly after Trump’s announcement.
‘President Cyril Ramaphosa has noted the regrettable statement by President Donald Trump on South Africa’s participation in the 2026 G20 meetings,’ the Presidency said.
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They emphasised that the Johannesburg summit had been widely applauded: ‘The G20 South Africa 2025 Leaders’ Summit, attended by several Heads of State and Government, was hailed by all those who attended the summit as one of the most successful summits.’
According to the Presidency, the outcomes of the meeting also reaffirmed global cooperation: ‘The summit produced a declaration that affirmed the indisputable strength and value of multilateralism in response to the most pressing challenges facing the world.’
Frustration was also evident in another part of the statement, which pointed at Trump’s approach to South Africa: ‘It is regrettable that despite the efforts and numerous attempts by President Ramaphosa and his administration to reset the diplomatic relationship with the US, President Trump continues to apply punitive measures against South Africa based on misinformation and distortions about our country.’
The rift between the two governments had already widened earlier in the year. Trump not only declined to attend the Johannesburg summit personally but also instructed senior US officials, including Vice President JD Vance, to stay away entirely.
Despite that decision, the White House later attempted to send junior embassy officials to take part in the ceremonial G20 Presidency handover. Pretoria rejected the request on the basis that such a handover cannot be conducted with representatives far below head-of-state level.
In another post, Trump criticised South Africa’s refusal to comply, saying that ‘South Africa refused to hand off the G20 Presidency to a Senior Representative of [the] US Embassy, who attended the closing ceremony.’
The Johannesburg summit had strong global attendance, drawing leaders such as French President Emmanuel Macron, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Chinese Premier Li Qiang, Canada’s Mark Carney, India’s Narendra Modi, Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Germany’s Friedrich Merz, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, among others.
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