Fri May 23 12:40:00 UTC 2025: **Here’s a summary of the text:**
President Trump showed a video to South African President Ramaphosa depicting what he claimed were burial sites of white Afrikaner farmers in South Africa, alleging they are being killed and forced off their land. NBC News reporter Yamiche Alcindor questioned the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, about the video’s accuracy, citing reports that the crosses in the video were from a memorial demonstration, not actual burial sites. Leavitt defended the video, citing an Associated Press caption referencing a monument where each cross marked a white farmer killed in a farm murder. Alcindor and Leavitt engaged in a heated exchange, with Leavitt calling Alcindor’s line of questioning “ridiculous.” President Ramaphosa also expressed unfamiliarity with the purported burial sites, prompting Trump to vaguely state they were “in South Africa.”
**Here’s the rewritten text as a news article:**
**White House Spars with Reporter Over Trump’s Claims of Persecution Against White South African Farmers**
**WASHINGTON –** A tense exchange erupted at the White House briefing room on Thursday after President Donald Trump presented South African President Cyril Ramaphosa with a video allegedly depicting the burial sites of white Afrikaner farmers in South Africa. Trump has repeatedly claimed these farmers are being targeted, killed, and forced off their land.
During a meeting in the Oval Office on Wednesday, Trump reportedly showed Ramaphosa a video displaying rows of white crosses, claiming they represented approximately 1,000 burial sites of white farmers.
NBC News reporter Yamiche Alcindor challenged White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on the video’s veracity, pointing to reports suggesting the crosses were part of a memorial demonstration held after the murder of a white farming couple, and not actual gravesites.
“We know that that was not true and that the video wasn’t true,” Alcindor asserted during the briefing.
The exchange quickly escalated, with Alcindor questioning the protocols in place to prevent the dissemination of “unsubstantiated information” to world leaders.
Leavitt staunchly defended the video’s accuracy. “What’s unsubstantiated about the video?” she retorted. “The video shows crosses that represent the dead bodies of people who were racially persecuted by their government.”
Leavitt then cited an Associated Press caption that described a similar monument: “‘Each cross marks a white farmer who has been killed in a farm murder.'”
“So it is substantiated,” Leavitt continued. “And that’s a ridiculous line of questioning.”
According to the Associated Press, the crosses in the video were part of a demonstration following the 2020 murder of a white farming couple.
The issue also raised questions during the Oval Office meeting itself. Trump stated the burial sites were along the side of the road and visited by those who want to pay respects to their family members who were killed.
“Have they told you where that is, Mr. President?” Ramaphosa responded. “I’d like to know where that is. Because this I’ve never seen.”
“I mean, it’s in South Africa, that’s where,” Trump replied.
“We need to find out,” Ramaphosa said.
First Piper 