Why South Africa's president could be walking into an Oval Office 'buzzsaw'

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

56% : Since Apartheid ended in 1994, South Africa's government has taken steps to address the economic inequality caused by the system of segregation, including through a program to redistribute land to Black South Africans that had been taken by former governments.
45% : The relationship between the U.S. and South Africa has been rapidly deteriorating since January, when Trump took office and almost immediately began to highlight what he and close aides view as South Africa's race-based discrimination against Afrikaners, the country's white ethnic minority that ruled during Apartheid.
44% : Last year, Ramaphosa enacted a law allowing the government to seize land without compensation when deemed to be in the public interest -- a decision Trump and his allies have derided even though it has been rarely used.
43% : Ramaphosa may be highly motivated to hammer out a deal by political and economic pressures.
40% : And it has angered other Republican defense hawks for courting China and cozying up to Moscow -- with which it has deep ties dating to the anti-Apartheid movement in the Cold War -- amid Russia's war in Ukraine.
38% : Rubio stressed that Trump was open to resetting the relationship, but only if South Africa was ready to reconsider some of those stances.
36% : In February, Trump signed an executive order ending all foreign aid to South Africa based on unproven claims of "race-based discrimination" -- championing the plight of white Afrikaners in what has become a cause celebre for figures in the new MAGA right like billionaire tycoon Elon Musk (who is himself South African).
35% : "It could go extra well or it could make Zelenskyy's visit look like a cakewalk," the person said, referring to the February visit by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, when he was publicly picked apart by Trump and Vice President JD Vance.
32% : One administration official, granted anonymity to discuss the visit because they were not authorized to speak publicly, said that it's "almost a 100 percent chance" that Trump brings up South Africa's treatment of its white farmers when the two leaders appear for the now customary Oval Office gaggle with members of the press.
30% : Trump floated 30 percent tariffs or higher on the country that could return in July if the countries don't find a resolution before Trump's 90-day deadline.
26% : Rubio announced the expulsion in a social media post, blasting the former ambassador, Ebrahim Rasool, as a "race-baiting politician who hates America." And just last week, the Trump administration welcomed a group of 49 Afrikaners as refugees -- a striking allowance that coincides with the White House ending refugee admissions for nearly all others, including Afghans who served alongside U.S. forces for two decades.
16% : But Jonas in the past castigated Trump as a "racist homophobe" and "narcissistic rightwinger," comments from 2020 that circulated widely in South African media after his new appointment.
16% : Ramaphosa, who pointedly criticized Trump during his first term, told reporters "I'm not scared" last weekend before leaving for Washington.
16% : " Ramaphosa is aiming to assuage Trump's fears about a white genocide in South Africa, and to turn the talks back to trade and tariffs -- all to lower the temperature ahead of November's G20 summit in Johannesburg that, as of now, Trump is uncertain to attend.
15% : In March, the State Department expelled South Africa's ambassador from Washington after he criticized Trump for playing to white fears and grievances.

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