The Trump administration will not invite South Africa to take part in G20 events hosted in the United States next year and will “immediately” stop payments to the African nation, President Donald Trump said Wednesday.

“At my direction, South Africa will NOT be receiving an invitation to the 2026 G20, which will be hosted in the Great City of Miami, Florida next year,” Trump said in a post on social media. “South Africa has demonstrated to the World they are not a country worthy of Membership anywhere, and we are going to stop all payments and subsidies to them, effective immediately.”

The exclusion of South Africa from the meetings of the world’s most important economies is an unprecedented step and would mark the first time a country was outright excluded from them in its more than 20-year history.

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa responded later Wednesday to what he called Trump’s “regrettable statement.”

“South Africa is a sovereign constitutional democratic country and does not appreciate insults from another country about its worth in participating in global platforms,” the South African presidency said in a statement on X.

Trump suspended aid to South Africa in February, alleging discrimination against White farmers. It is unclear what further “payments and subsidies” are being halted.

The US boycotted the 2025 meeting in South Africa amid unfounded accusations that the government there is committing genocide against White South Africans.

The administration plans to invite Poland to participate at an elevated level at the 2026 gatherings, a source said.

South African Presidential spokesman, Vincent Magwenya, told CNN earlier Wednesday that they’ve “heard similar speculation,” but “until we receive official communication, we will take it as mere speculation.”

Poland, whose president has a warm relationship with US President Donald Trump, is actively seeking membership in the G20.

Karol Nawrocki said after meeting Trump in September that Trump invited him to attend the G20 summit in 2026. That summit will be hosted at the US president’s golf resort in Doral, Florida, in December 2026.

“It’s right next to the airport. It’s the best location. It’s beautiful,” Trump said in September.

Poland’s finance minister told Polish radio station RMF FM last month that, “given that we have had thirty-five years of uninterrupted economic growth and are the twentieth-largest economy in the world, ahead of, among others, Switzerland, our aspirations to join the G20 are entirely justified.”

Meanwhile, relations between the US and South Africa have plummeted under the Trump administration. In March, the State Department expelled the South African ambassador to the US, declaring him ‘persona non grata.’

South Africa wrapped up its chairmanship of the group earlier this month, without a high-level US official present to receive the gavel as they took on the chairmanship.

Trump claimed Wednesday that “at the conclusion of the G20, South Africa refused to hand off the G20 Presidency to a Senior Representative from our U.S. Embassy, who attended the Closing Ceremony.” (CNN)

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