In a carefully choreographed Oval Office onslaught, Trump listed concerns about the treatment of white South Africans, which he punctuated by playing a video and leafing through a stack of printed news articles that he said proved his allegations.
The US president said white South Africans were fleeing to the US and to Australia because their land was being taken away from them and they were being executed.
"We have thousands of people that want to come into our country. They're also going to Australia in a smaller number," Trump said.
"But we have thousands of people that want to come into our country and they're white farmers and they feel that they're going to die in South Africa and it's a bad thing."
With the lights turned down at Trump's request, the video that was played showed white crosses, which Trump asserted were the graves of white people, and opposition leaders making incendiary speeches.
Trump suggested one of them, Julius Malema, should be arrested. The video was made in September 2020 during a protest after two people were killed on their farm a week earlier.
The crosses did not mark actual graves. An organiser of the protest told South Africa's public broadcaster at the time they represented farmers who had been killed over the years.
"We have many people that feel they're being persecuted, and they're coming to the United States," Trump said.
"So we take from many ... locations, if we feel there's persecution or genocide going on," he added, referring specifically to white farmers.
"People are fleeing South Africa for their own safety. Their land is being confiscated, and in many cases, they're being killed," the president added, echoing a once-fringe conspiracy theory that has circulated in global far-right chat rooms for at least a decade with the vocal support of Trump's ally, South African-born Elon Musk, who was in the Oval Office during the meeting.
Ramaphosa had hoped to use Wednesday's meeting to reset his country's relationship with the US, after Trump cancelled much-needed aid to South Africa, offered refuge to white minority Afrikaners, expelled the country's ambassador and criticised its genocide court case against Israel.
The South African president arrived prepared for an aggressive reception, bringing popular white South African golfers as part of his delegation and saying he wanted to discuss trade.
Ramaphosa, sitting in a chair next to Trump and remaining poised, pushed back against his claims.
"If there was Afrikaner farmer genocide, I can bet you, these three gentlemen would not be here," Ramaphosa said, referring to golfers Ernie Els and Retief Goosen and billionaire Johann Rupert, all white, who were present in the room.
That did not satisfy Trump.
"We have thousands of stories talking about it, and we have documentaries, we have news stories," Trump said. "It has to be responded to."
Trump then displayed printed copies of articles that he said showed white South Africans who had been killed, saying "death, death" as he flipped through them, eventually handing them to his counterpart.
Ramaphosa said there was crime in South Africa, and the majority of victims were Black. Trump cut him off and said: "The farmers are not Black."
The South African president cited Nelson Mandela's example as a peacemaker, but that did not move the US president, whose political base includes white nationalists.
"I will say: apartheid, terrible," Trump noted. "This is sort of the opposite of apartheid."
Following the meeting, Ramaphosa sought to focus on trade, telling reporters the two countries had agreed to discuss critical minerals in South Africa.
The president also flatly denied Trump's allegations about a wave of racial violence against white farmers.
"There is just no genocide in South Africa," he said.
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