Secretary of State Marco Rubio is refusing to attend the Group of 20 (G-20) summit in Johannesburg this year, in protest of the South African government’s controversial land seizure bill.
The bill, which was signed last week, permits South African authorities to expropriate land “for a public purpose or in the public interest,” promising “just and equitable compensation” to those impacted by the bill. Although the majority of South African citizens are Black, most landowners are White — and this disparity has been a topic in South Africa for years.
The law also allows expropriation of land without compensation, but only in circumstances where it is “just and equitable and in the public interest.”
The G-20 summit is scheduled to kick off on Nov. 22 — but in a social media post on Wednesday, Rubio wrote definitively that he “will NOT” be there.
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Marco Rubio is refusing to go to South Africa for G-20. (iStock / Getty)
“South Africa is doing very bad things,” Rubio’s X post read. “Expropriating private property. Using G20 to promote ‘solidarity, equality, & sustainability.'”
“In other words: DEI and climate change,” the Republican added. “My job is to advance America’s national interests, not waste taxpayer money or coddle anti-Americanism.”
President Donald Trump‘s administration has been vocally critical of the land seizure bill. In a Truth Social post, Trump called the situation a “massive Human Rights VIOLATION, at a minimum.”
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Secretary of State Marco Rubio boards a plane en route to El Salvador at Panama Pacifico International Airport in Panama City on Monday. Rubio is in Panama on a two-day official visit. (Mark Schiefelbein/Pool AP/AFP via Getty Images)
“It is a bad situation that the Radical Left Media doesn’t want to so much as mention,” Trump wrote in a post. “The United States won’t stand for it, we will act. Also, I will be cutting off all future funding to South Africa until a full investigation of this situation has been completed!”
The South African government has coolly responded to the Trump administration’s accusations, denying that any unjust confiscation has occurred.
“We look forward to engaging with the Trump administration over our land reform policy and issues of bilateral interest,” South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a statement. “We are certain that out of those engagements, we will share a better and common understanding over these matters”.
In an interview with Fox News Digital, South African analyst Frans Cronje proposed that Trump alluded to the ongoing killing of farmers in South Africa when he talked about certain classes of people being treated “very badly.” The attacks have been perpetuated against both White and Black farmers.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, left, and President Donald Trump, who has criticized the country’s new land laws. (Evan Vucci/AP/Rajesh Jantilal/AFP via Getty Images)
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“President Trump’s recent comments on land seizures in South Africa cannot be divorced from his past comments on violent attacks directed at the country’s farmers,” Cronje said. “Whilst these comments have often been dismissed as false, the latest South African data suggests that the country’s commercial farmers are six times more likely to be violently attacked in their homes than is the case for the general population.”
Fox News Digital’s Paul Tisley contributed to this report.
