America has a new spectator sport: it’s unruly, made for primetime, and the venue is the Oval Office.
In Wednesday’s bout, President Donald Trump was in the red corner, facing off against his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa. The guest had come for talks about trade and investment. He found himself in the diplomatic equivalent of an arm and head choke.
Trump hectored him over debunked claims that white South African farmers are being killed in large numbers and kicked off their land — claims Ramaphosa rejected. The US president even dimmed the lights to show a montage of video clips purporting to show violence against whites. Ramaphosa quietly pointed out that most victims of crime in South Africa were Black.
Experts are still trying to figure out what the latest Oval Office ambush means for America’s foreign relations.
“It doesn’t exactly encourage people to want to come and sit down with Trump — who knows how they’re going to be treated?” John Bolton, who served as Trump’s national security adviser in his first term, told the Financial Times. “I think it’s counter-productive.”
That could have profound implications for Trump’s future dealings with leaders such as Chinese President Xi Jinping, who would want to avoid such a public altercation at all costs.
“This has got to reinforce Xi’s existing concerns about having unscripted moments with foreign leaders,” said Stephen Wertheim, a historian of American foreign policy at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
It wasn’t the first time Trump had publicly upbraided a visiting dignitary. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was subjected to a similar tongue-lashing in February, berated by Trump and JD Vance for failing to show enough gratitude to the US, in a bruising encounter that raised fears of a full rupture between the two allies.
Such public rows are a gift for Moscow and Beijing, who see them as undermining the US’s international prestige, say experts. American soft power has already been harmed by the dismantling of USAID, the US agency for international development, which led to the closure of hundreds of life-saving health programmes around the world.
“Engagements like that are making China’s point for it,” said Michelle Gavin, senior fellow for Africa policy studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. “They have lent credence to China’s talking point that it’s a reliable partner.”
“Champagne corks will be popping in Russia and China,” said Christoph Heusgen, who served as national security adviser to former German chancellor Angela Merkel. “The US is going to massively lose influence in the world as a result of incidents like this.”
America’s international standing is already in decline. According to the latest Democracy Perception Index survey, conducted in April, the share of countries with a positive image of the US is now 45 per cent, down from 76 per cent last year.
The perception of Trump was also negative in 82 of the 100 countries surveyed. By contrast, Russian President Vladimir Putin was viewed negatively in 61 countries and Xi Jinping in only 44. “This spectacle in the Oval Office will only contribute to the [US’s] unpopularity,” said Wertheim.
The new version of diplomatic mixed martial arts taking place in the Oval Office grew from humble origins. Photo ops there were always modest affairs, with the president and his guest shaking hands and exchanging platitudes for five to 10 minutes before wranglers ushered out the press pool and the action moved to the Cabinet Room.
Trump has shuffled the cards. The photo ops are now attended by senior cabinet members, including Vance, as well as the full gamut of Maga media, and have turned into full-scale press conferences, which the president visibly enjoys. “The entire Royal Court’s there now,” said Bolton.
During his first term, Trump rarely criticised his guests publicly, limiting himself to small gestures of disdain, such as refusing to shake hands with Merkel for the TV cameras in 2017. But, as the encounters with Zelenskyy and Ramaphosa show, the president’s appetite for a full public takedown has only grown.
He has also used the photo ops to heap praise on politicians who are aligned with his ideological agenda, such as President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador, whom he personally thanked for helping with his campaign to deport illegal immigrants.
Some world leaders have been able to parry Trump’s verbal attacks. At a meeting in the White House in February with French President Emmanuel Macron, Trump claimed that the EU was “loaning the money to Ukraine [and] they’ll get their money back”.
Macron placed his hand on Trump’s arm and contradicted him. “No, in fact, to be frank, we paid 60 per cent of the total effort . . . We provided real money, to be clear.”
Mark Carney, the newly elected Canadian prime minister, also used his White House appearance to firmly reject Trump’s claim on Canada, saying: “There are some places that are never for sale”. Trump got the last word, however, launching into a tirade about how the US was paying for the lion’s share of Canada’s defence.
But the encounter with Ramaphosa was, for many observers, simply puzzling. The US and South Africa had much to discuss: trade and investment, the future of BRICS, the G20 summit that’s being held in Johannesburg in November.
Instead Trump became fixated on false claims of a genocide against white Afrikaner farmers.
Bolton questioned whether the claims had been vetted by US experts on South Africa — who would doubtless have cast doubt on their validity — ahead of the meeting.
“If not, what does that tell the other leaders of the world that sheer propaganda, if it sinks into Trump’s brain, suddenly becomes what he talks about in public to the head of a foreign government?” he said.
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