Elon Musk appeared to cast an unfriendly gaze at South African President Cyril Ramaphosa during President Donald Trump’s meeting with the foreign leader on Wednesday.
The top adviser to Trump, who has grown less involved with the administration lately but showed up for Trump’s chat with Ramaphosa, stood behind a couch with Vice President JD Vance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, sitting and appearing to glare at the foreign official.
Elon Musk glares at South African president Cyril Ramaphosa during President Donald Trump’s meeting with him: pic.twitter.com/dwHsTGDOHW
— Ross O’Keefe (@RossOKeefe2) May 21, 2025
Musk, born in Pretoria, South Africa, had posted on X multiple times about his home country last week, complaining about laws he says are racist there.
“There are 140 laws on the books in South Africa that are explicitly racist against anyone who is not black. This is a terrible disgrace to the legacy of the great Nelson Mandela. End racism in South Africa now!” he posted on X on May 16.
He responded to Ramaphosa in a post on his social media platform the same day: “Repeal the 100+ racist laws that South Africa has passed that discriminate against anyone who is not black! If not, South Africa should be sanctioned. This is just Apartheid version 2!”
Ramaphosa had said in the post that there is “no genocide” in South Africa.
Trump showed footage in the Oval Office of alleged burial sites of white farmers in his meeting with the South African president. “Turn the lights down and just put this on,” Trump said as he directed Ramaphosa to watch a video montage of political rallies with widespread chants of “Kill the farmer!” and images of grave sites.
“These are burial sites right here. … Over a thousand of white farmers,” Trump pointed out to the president.
Trump claimed there is systematic persecution of minority white Afrikaner farmers and provided some people from the country with a chartered flight into the United States to evade the alleged persecution.
TRUMP SHOWS VIDEO IN OVAL OFFICE TO SOUTH AFRICA’S PRESIDENT OF WHITE ‘BURIAL SITES’
Trump suggested the meeting is “what Elon wanted.”
“I don’t want to get Elon involved. That’s all I have to do, get him into another thing,” Trump said to light laughter. “But Elon happens to be from South Africa. This is what Elon wanted. He actually came here on a different subject, sending rockets to Mars, OK? He likes that better. He likes that subject better. But Elon’s from South Africa, and I don’t want to talk to him about that. I don’t think it’s fair to him.”