Trump ‘likely’ to skip G20 in Joburg - expert
Wits University’s Professor John Stremlau says that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s decision to skip the G20 meeting in South Africa was ultimately due to Donald Trump.
Rubio said Wednesday he would skip Group of 20 talks this month in South Africa, accusing the host government of an "anti-American" agenda.
Rubio's announcement comes days after US President Donald Trump lashed out at South Africa over land reforms aimed at redressing inequalities perpetrated during the apartheid era.
In a post on X that took on the tone of Trump, Rubio said he would boycott the G20 talks of foreign ministers in Johannesburg on February 20-21.
"South Africa is doing very bad things. Expropriating private property. Using G20 to promote 'solidarity, equality, & sustainability,'" Rubio wrote in his post.
"In other words: DEI and climate change.
I will NOT attend the G20 summit in Johannesburg.
— Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) February 5, 2025
South Africa is doing very bad things. Expropriating private property. Using G20 to promote “solidarity, equality, & sustainability.” In other words: DEI and climate change.
My job is to advance America’s national interests, not…
DEI, or diversity, equity, and inclusion, has been attacked relentlessly by Trump since he returned to the White House last month.
Stremlau believes Rubio's decision to stay away suggests that Trump will not attend the G20 Summit in November.
"His decision…to not come to the G20 Summit in Johannesburg suggests to me that Donald Trump will stay away too, but that's my speculation right now. The reason for his doing so was the seizure of land alleged in the case of the Appropriation or the Expropriation Bill.
“That was symptomatic of a failure to read the 52-page document and to listen to the explanations that President Ramaphosa and others have given about the nature of the bill, which is largely procedural.
"In other words, Rubio says that he's going to oppose the DEI policies of the South African government, which is embedded in its constitution, diversity, equity, and inclusion, and we're not getting very far on the equity, but also climate change, and that climate change is undeniable, but scientifically, but Trump nevertheless denies it, and Rubio is following suit."
The absence of the United States, the world's largest economy, would mark a major blow to the G20, which is meant to represent the world's largest economies.
Stremlau said he remains hopeful that South Africa’s Ambassador to the US, Ebrahim Rasool, will be able to explain the country’s policies to the Trump administration.
"I hope Ambassador Rasool is spending time talking to the American body politic about the costs of Donald Trump's policies on the national interests of the United States writ large. These are not immutable, but they should be changed by due process, not by violence, not by the kind of arbitrary actions that Trump is taking and usurping presidential executive power in the way that he is doing, which is contrary to the founders' belief in checks and balances, and it's contrary to the way in which the legal system functions here as a check on the abuse of power."
Stremlau believes Trump is testing the strength of the US political system ahead of the 2026 mid-term elections.
"There is likely to be a reaction, and in a sense, his outrageousness is so extreme that it is maybe working its way through the US domestic system faster than normal.”
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