Trump bars South Africa from 2026 G20 summit, cuts US funding after dispute

New Delhi,UPDATED: Nov 27, 2025 03:08 IST

President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that South Africa will not be invited to next year’s G20 summit in Miami, saying he is halting all US payments and subsidies to the country after what he described as its mistreatment of an American representative at this year’s G20 gathering.

Trump skipped the Johannesburg summit entirely, claiming he refused to send a US delegation because white Afrikaners were being violently targeted, an allegation South Africa has dismissed as unfounded. He said that when the meeting concluded, South Africa declined to hand over the G20 host responsibilities to a senior US Embassy official, prompting his decision.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump wrote: “South Africa will NOT be receiving an invitation to the 2026 G20, which will be hosted in Miami, Florida. South Africa has shown they are not worthy of membership anywhere, and we are stopping all payments and subsidies to them immediately.”

The Johannesburg summit, the first held on African soil, went ahead without the United States, which also refused to sign the final declaration, objecting to sections emphasising climate policy and priorities of developing nations.

The U.S. nonetheless began its rotating G20 presidency on Monday, leaving the impact of the unsigned declaration uncertain. Traditionally, the outgoing host passes a symbolic wooden gavel to the next presiding nation, but with no U.S. officials present due to the boycott, the handoff stalled. South Africa said it would not present the gavel to what it considered a “junior” embassy representative.

Trump has previously stated that the 2026 G20 summit will be held at his Doral golf resort near Miami.

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