Other images displayed by Trump during meeting with South African president Cyril Ramaphosa were false or misleading

The evidence of supposed mass killings of white South Africans presented by Donald Trump in a tense White House meeting on Wednesday were in some cases images from the Democratic Republic of Congo, while footage shown during the meeting was falsely portrayed as depicting “burial sites”.

“These are all white farmers that are being buried,” said Trump, holding up a print-out of an article accompanied by a picture during the contentious Oval Office meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.

The picture accompanying the article was in fact a screengrab of a video published by Reuters on 3 February and subsequently verified by the news agency’s fact check team, showing humanitarian workers lifting body bags in the Congolese city of Goma. The image was pulled from Reuters footage shot after deadly battles with Rwanda-backed M23 rebels.

        • @vortexsurfer@lemmy.world
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          527 days ago

          My theory is that he’s so narcissistic that he genuinely believes every thought that comes into his mind is the truth.

          • @Ledericas@lemm.ee
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            127 days ago

            hes like the system lords, they believe in thier own bs, because of thier narccistic personalities, except one.

        • @dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world
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          327 days ago

          This is the right answer. Life has already shown him that operating on a level playing field and being honest, really doesn’t get a guy like him very far. So the genius workaround is to lie your pants off instead, and build an alternative environment around yourself where you can’t lose.

      • @Yermaw@lemm.ee
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        527 days ago

        In his defence (feels dirty and weird typing that) he’s probably being lied to. I have very little clue about the legitimacy of information I get on world news, as everybody has an agenda and misinformation is so easy to create and disseminate. If he’s got to be on the case with basically every issue, he’ll just be getting fed information and has to trust that his advisors know what they’re doing. I wouldn’t bother fact checking everything if I were in that position, there’s simply not enough hours in the day.

        Of course he’s also a confirmed liar and a known prick so who knows.

      • Refurbished Refurbisher
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        27 days ago

        Fascists can never admit that they’re wrong, becauae then their vaneer of being infallible immediately falls apart.

        I still remember back in 2015-2016 when 4chan called Trump “God Emperor.” That mentality hasn’t gone away. Fascism is a cult.

        The only “truth” that fascists believe is the “truth” of the fascist leader. Trump even calls his social media platform “Truth Social” FFS. It couldn’t be more blatent.

    • @Lumidaub@feddit.org
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      3328 days ago

      How does that happen? Who goes “text text text, blah blah blah, now I need a specific flag, let’s definitely type ‘flag’ and tediously look for the right one, because typing [country name] would be too easy”? I get that they look VERY similar and I couldn’t tell you which one is which if they’re side-by-side but that doesn’t fucking matter if you simply ask your keyboard for the country! Gaaaaaawddddddd.

      Romania: 🇷🇴 Chad: 🇹🇩

      Same for stereotypical USians going “yeeeeah 🇱🇷🇱🇷🇱🇷🇱🇷”

  • @Showroom7561@lemmy.ca
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    7528 days ago

    Ramaphosa was right to ask “I’d like to know where that is”, when the “evidence” was shown to him live.

    Other world leaders should be prepared to challenge Trump right to his face when he fabricates lies like this in those pathetic ambush attempts.

    • @HiddenLychee@lemmy.world
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      1227 days ago

      I once got into an argument with a south African on reddit about white genocide. Even over there it’s a political issue, but the way he and many people describe it makes it seem like if you even set foot there as a white person you’ll get mugged.

      I was saying I lived there for six months, spent a lot of town in the townships where it was only black people, and I legit never once was harmed. Yeah it’s dangerous but like, they act like they’ve never been in a dangerous neighborhood in the states.

      But because I was an American sharing this perspective and they were South African, I got relentlessly shamed by redditors. To be fair I get where they’re coming from. If you have no clue about the issue and someone from another country trying to say something said about that persons own country is BS, it doesn’t look good. But it’s literally a political topic and he was coming at it from the extreme right perspective. Because I’m an American, like a dozen people took away from that thread that white genocide is real.

        • TheRealKuni
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          2227 days ago

          They should leave, go back to Holland or wherever they came from

          They didn’t take land. Their ancestors did. They were born and grew up in South Africa.

          And yes, they benefitted from an absolutely horrible system of apartheid.

          But telling them to “go back where they came from” is racist AF, just like it is when said to a brown person in the States. Don’t be that guy. They are where they came from.

          • @barsoap@lemm.ee
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            327 days ago

            And it’s always land, isn’t it. Inheriting some land, in this day and age, is worth much less than a good education.

            Inheriting industries is much more problematic and can be solved, completely without reference to skin colour, by taxation. To fund the previously mentioned education.

  • @RedditIsDeddit@lemmy.world
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    5628 days ago

    I don’t think anybody in our federal government that’s in charge of anything has any good intentions at all at this point

  • @Charlxmagne@lemmy.world
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    28 days ago

    To choose SA of all places for this particular agenda has to be the most ironic thing I’ve heard in a while 🤦‍♂️ quite brave asw considering Musk’s family history

  • @Grizzlyboy@lemm.ee
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    827 days ago

    If there’s a continent where white genocide is justified, Africa sure is a front runner!

  • @Ledericas@lemm.ee
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    27 days ago

    funny how the racists come out in the comments as soon as any thread mentions white genocide.

  • @anarchyrabbit@lemmy.world
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    528 days ago

    Doesn’t mean that we don’t have a violence issue in South Africa. Our killing stats are on par with countries at war. Think about that for a minute

    • TheLowestStone
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      2728 days ago

      No one is saying that South Africa doesn’t have a violence problem just that “white genocide” is a lie.

      • @shplane@lemmy.world
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        628 days ago

        Well I did a little research and there was this thing called Apartheid. It sounded pretty bad. Might have something to do with the race relations out there.

        • @anarchyrabbit@lemmy.world
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          227 days ago

          I was 6 years old when apartheid ended. My parents and many white people didn’t agree with it. You probably don’t know much about it. I had fuck all to do with it, but because I happen to be white it is my fault?

          Our major problem is unemployment, our government policies are not business friendly. Keep hammering at that keyboard pal.

          • @shplane@lemmy.world
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            227 days ago

            Nowhere in my comment did I say apartheid was your fault. Please read White Fragility and then look in the mirror.

            • @anarchyrabbit@lemmy.world
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              227 days ago

              It has been 32 years since. Many people still live in poverty if the ANC actually cared about the people they would have sorted out education, but keep the masses uneducated and they will vote for you. A pass rate in SA is 30% to push up pass statistics. A fucking joke.

              Make policies that encourage investment and job creation.

              Get a police force that is actually competent.

              All our SOEs are running at losses and require constant bail outs. Our rail system is fucked. Our energy supply is fucked. Our water supply is near fucked. Our roads are fucked. Way too much corruption causing this. Officials looting money that is meant for the people of the nation. I could go on.

              Fix root causes.

              But populism over logical policies…