Trump said the US would boycott the G20 in South Africa, repeating his claims about the “mistreatment” of white farmers

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Friday that no U.S. government officials will attend this year’s G20 summit in South Africa, citing the country’s treatment of white farmers.

Trump had already announced that he would not attend the annual summit of heads of state of the world’s leading and emerging economies. Vice President J.D. Vance was scheduled to attend in Trump’s place, but a person familiar with Vance’s plans, who was granted anonymity to talk about his agenda, said Vance would no longer travel there for the summit.

Read more: Trump limits the annual US refugee population to 7,500 people. Most of them will be white South Africans

Trump said on his social media page, “It is absolutely shameful that the G20 is being held in South Africa.” In his post, Trump referred to the “violations” of Africans, including violence and death, as well as the confiscation of their lands and farms.

The Trump administration has long accused the South African government of allowing minority white African farmers to be persecuted and attacked. While it limited the number of refugees admitted annually to the United States to 7,500, the administration indicated that most of them would be white South African citizens who it claimed faced discrimination and violence in their homeland.

But the South African government said it was surprised by the accusations of discrimination, because whites in the country generally enjoy a much higher standard of living than black residents, more than three decades after the end of apartheid white minority rule.

The country’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, said he told Trump that information about alleged discrimination and persecution of Afrikaners was “completely false.”

However, the administration continued its criticism of the South African government. Earlier this week, during an economic speech in Miami, Trump said South Africa should be removed from the G20.

Earlier this year, Secretary of State Marco Rubio boycotted a meeting of G20 foreign ministers because his agenda focused on diversity and inclusion efforts and climate change.