On November 26, 2025, President Donald Trump declared that South Africa will not be invited to the next G20 summit, scheduled for December 2026 in Miami, Florida — a decision he said follows the United States’ boycott of this year’s Johannesburg meeting.

Trump explained the move via a post on Truth Social, stating that South Africa refused to hand over the G20 presidency to a senior U.S. Embassy representative at the close of the 2025 summit, a breach of what he described as diplomatic protocol.

In addition, Trump reiterated longstanding claims — widely discredited by independent observers — that South Africa’s government is persecuting its white minority, particularly Afrikaner farmers.

He characterized their treatment as a “white genocide,” and used this assertion to justify barring Pretoria from the next G20 event and suspending U.S. payments and subsidies to the country.

The decision has sparked a strong diplomatic response from South Africa.

Government officials denounced the move as “punitive” and built on misinformation.

They dismissed the allegation of white-farmer persecution as baseless, and defended their handling of the G20 handover procedure as legitimate under international norms.

South Africa’s presidency emphasised that holding the first-ever G20 summit on African soil was a milestone, and maintained that the summit succeeded — finalising a leaders’ declaration on global climate action, debt relief for developing nations, and strengthening cooperation among Global South states, despite the absence of the United States.

For now, the U.S. stands firm: there will be no invitation extended to South Africa for the 2026 summit.

The move further underscores Washington’s “America First” approach under Trump, raising questions about the future of multilateral institutions when diplomatic disputes translate into exclusion from global forums.