The anti-American BRICS coalition largely remained silent this week as the president of one of its core members, South Africa, faced a humiliating excoriation at the White House over genocidal calls to kill white farmers in his country.
President Cyril Ramaphosa held an in-person meeting with President Donald Trump on Wednesday which South African officials had previewed as an attempt to negotiate a favorable trade deal and discuss economic cooperation. Instead, Trump confronted Ramaphosa about violent attacks on South Africa’s white farmer community and presented video evidence of radical leftists in the country calling for the killing of white people with impunity, demanding South Africa address its human rights crisis.
Prior to the meeting, the Trump administration welcomed 49 white South Africans as refugees to America; Ramaphosa had denied that they were legitimate refugees and referred to them as “cowards.”
The White House clash was one of the most humiliating moments for the South African government in its modern history. While the country’s Marxist government has forged nominally strong alliances with the world’s most formidable leftist powers – primarily through the BRICS coalition, with Russia and China at the helm – its geopolitical partners did little to defend South Africa from grave accusations of enabling genocidal activity.
The lack of support from BRICS partners represented yet another sign that the partnership, centered around opposition to American prosperity, is much weaker than its leaders claim it to be, as member countries have few interests in common outside of opposing American economic and political dominance on philosophical grounds.
Trump’s grievances with the South African government focused on widespread violent crime against white farmers in the country and on the fact that prominent political figures openly call for the mass murder of white South Africans. Of particular concern is the radical leftist party Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), led by Julius Malema, who regularly chants “kill the farmer,” “kill the Boer [white South African],” “shoot to kill,” and makes shooting noises while leading full stadiums in shouting the slogans.
🚨 JUST SHOWN IN THE OVAL OFFICE: Proof of Persecution in South Africa. pic.twitter.com/rER1l8sqAU
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) May 21, 2025
The EFF issued a statement condemning Trump on Wednesday that concluded with “Kill the Boer, Kill the Farmer! Victory is Certain!”
South Africa is a core, full member of BRICS – the “S” in the acronym – alongside Brazil, Russia, India, and China. A first round of expansion added the nations Ethiopia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, and Iran in 2024. Indonesia joined as a member a year later. Following the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia, in late 2024, the group created a second tier of membership, adding 13 “partner” states. This tier of BRICS associates includes Cuba, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Nigeria.
None of the foreign ministries of member nations have expressed support for Ramaphosa’s government in the face of the Trump confrontation at press time. This includes the core members Brazil, Russia, India, and China. The English-language state outfits of Iran and China did publish articles claiming that Trump’s concerns about genocidal sentiments in South Africa, corroborated with video evidence, were unsubstantiated.
The Iranian news site PressTV complained that Trump’s concerns were “baseless,” defending South Africa’s racially discriminatory laws.
“The South African government says its longstanding affirmative action laws are a cornerstone of its efforts to right the injustices of the white minority rule of apartheid, which denied opportunities to Blacks and other racial groups,” PressTV claimed.
It also cited unnamed “experts” who allegedly claimed that Trump’s concerns were “groundless.”
Similarly, the Chinese state newspaper Global Times complained that Trump brought a “laundry list of conspiracy theories” to his meeting with Ramaphosa, entirely dismissing the video evidence of South Africa tolerating systematic violence against its white citizens.
The relative silence highlights the lack of incentive for BRICS nations to support each other. The coalition has already struggled with visible rifts in its membership, particularly between India and China, which engaged in military hostilities against each other in 2020. India has also been vocally supportive of Israel’s war against the genocidal terrorist organization Hamas, marking a stark divide with BRICS as an institution and, in particular, Hamas funder and BRICS member Iran.
Smaller disputes, such as Egypt and Ethiopia opposing South Africa calling for a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council, have also rendered major BRICS meetings counterproductive. The core BRICS members, just as in the face of Trump’s condemnations, did not stand up for South Africa in that dispute, resulting in a BRICS foreign minister meeting ending with no joint statement.
The weakness of BRICS in the face of an attack on one of its members by the United States – the nation whose success BRICS was created to not-so-subtly oppose – will likely damage the group’s reputation as a coalition of rising “Global South” countries, attempting to form a new “multilateral” order where America is not an influential power.
The next BRICS summit is scheduled to be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in July.
“We will make crucial decisions for development, cooperation, and improving the lives of all the inhabitants of these countries,” Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira said in February, following the announcement of the schedule.
