Rubio Snubs G20, Piles on South Africa

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is refusing to attend this month's G20 meeting in South Africa, days after President Trump accused the country of "confiscating land" from white farmers. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa disputed the allegations, noting no private property has been expropriated (we have an explainer here), but Trump's top diplomat doubled down on Wednesday. Rubio said he "will NOT" be in Johannesburg from Feb. 19 to Feb. 21, as "South Africa is doing very bad things. Expropriating private property. Using G20 to promote 'solidarity, equality, & sustainability.' In other words: DEI and climate change," Rubio wrote on X, adding he refuses to "coddle anti-Americanism."

Black people make up 80% of South Africa's population but own just 4% of freehold farmland, the result of dispossession and revoked property rights during the colonial and apartheid eras, per Reuters. A new law—which Trump advisor Elon Musk, a South African native, paints as "openly racist"—allows the government to expropriate land "for a public purpose or in the public interest" with "just and equitable compensation," per Fox News, or without compensation in rare cases, such as when that land is no longer in use or poses a risk to people, per the BBC. (More South Africa stories.)