Trump blunders: Misidentifies DRC footage in controversial claim
During a meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, U.S. President Donald Trump presented a screenshot from a Reuters video, claiming it depicted mass killings of white residents in South Africa. However, the footage was actually from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as highlighted by the agency.
- These are all white farmers that are being buried - Trump stated on Wednesday during the meeting with Ramaphosa in the Oval Office, holding an article with the attached screenshot in his hand.
The agency reported on Thursday evening that the material from which the screenshot was taken was published on February 3 and shows humanitarian workers carrying body bags in the city of Goma in eastern DRC, where violent clashes between government forces and the Rwanda-backed M23 militia were occurring at the time.
An article with the attached Reuters video was published by the conservative portal American Thinker regarding the conflicts in South Africa and the DRC. American Thinker journalist Andrea Widburg responded to reporters' questions, stating that Trump "misidentified" the image attached to her material.
The operator who recorded the footage for Reuters in the DRC, Djaffar Al Katanty, said he was shocked when he saw the U.S. President using his material.
In view of all the world, President Trump used my image, used what I filmed in DRC to try to convince President Ramaphosa that in his country, white people are being killed by Black people, he remarked.
The White House did not respond to journalists' requests for comment.
