"I won't be going" - Trump snubs G20 Summit in South Africa, announces Miami as host for 2026

United States President Donald Trump has made it official that he will not be attending the G20 Summit to be held in Johannesburg, South Africa, in November.

This comes as Trump has persistently made false claims of a genocide against white farmers in South Africa, and that the government was expropriating land from the minority white Afrikaners.

A recent United States Human Rights Report has also claimed that white farmers were being specifically targeted in racially motivated attacks in South Africa, remarks that were dismissed as “distorted and inaccurate” by the South African government.

Speaking at the Oval Office on Friday afternoon (US time), Trump replied to CBS News senior White House reporter Jennifer Jacobs' question about his plans to attend this year's G20 Summit in which the US will take over the Presidency from South Africa.

"I won't be going this year. It's in South Africa. I won't be going," Trump said. "JD [Vance] will be going. great Vice President and he looks forward to it. But no, I won't be going to that." 

Trump has on many occasions claimed that "bad things were happening in South Africa" over the government's land reform policies. 

It was expected that Trump would pull the plug on his attendance to the G20 Summit, despite President Cyril Ramaphosa personally going to the White House in June to plead with him and negotiate a trade deal before the reciprocal tariffs kicked in.

The G20 is an economic forum comprising 19 countries and two other blocs, the European Union and the African Union, representing most of the world's largest developed and emerging economies.

After assuming the G20 Presidency from Brazil last year, South Africa will host this year's summit from 22 to 23 November in Johannesburg under the theme: Solidarity, Equality and Sustainability. 

Meanwhile, Trump announced that the G20 Summit in 2026 will be hosted at his golf course and spa in Doral, Florida, Miami.

"So we're going to talk about Florida, the great state of Florida now because it's going to be a very exciting thing to host the G20. And as we celebrate our nation's 250th anniversary next year, the United States will have the honor of hosting exactly that, the G20 Summit right here in America for the first time in nearly 20 years," Trump said.

"This afternoon, I'm thrilled to announce that the 2026 G20 conference, which will be held in one of our country's greatest cities, [the] beautiful Miami, Florida. The agenda for next year's summit is being organized by Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent. He's very much involved with the G20 and the National Economic Council director, Kevin Hassett." 

Hassett is seen as a potential future nominee to lead the US Federal Reserve to succeed Jerome Powell as chair and Trump made it known that Hassett was among four candidates he's considering for the job.

Hassett said the US was excited to have the G20 Summit in 2026 and what was important about the G20 was that Trump's America First initiative did not mean America alone but it meant America leads.

"So we will be holding the G20 in the capital of the world, Miami, next year to showcase the beginning of President Trump's second term will be a year and a half into it. We will have done peace deals, tax deals, trade deals. We've made the US the best place to come, start a business, have tax certainty, energy certainty and regulatory certainty. And it's going to be an exciting event," Hassett said.

"And the US is back on the international stage as a leader. We have whittled down the G20 back to basics. We are making it work for the American people better than ever. The G20 has become basically the G100 this past year. So it will be a concentrated group, in Miami, seeing the best America has to offer with American leadership."

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