Trump Turns South Africa’s G-20 Into Tale of Two Summits
World Leaders with Cyril Ramaphosa at the G20 Summit.
Photographer: Leon Neal/Getty Images
If Donald Trump was bent on ruining South Africa’s Group of 20 Summit as part of his overarching attack on the multilateral order, let it be said that he didn’t succeed — but he widened the cracks.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, beset by Trump’s false claims of White genocide in his country and a US boycott, managed to get the rest of the G-20 to agree to a declaration, despite American threats. That it endorsed all the themes his administration has spent the year attacking — global solidarity, equality, sustainability — led one national newspaper to headline the first day: a “Bloody Nose for Trump.”