Secretary Rubio is skipping the G20 summit at Johannesburg later this month, echoing the sentiment of President Trump and Elon Musk, who have been recently critical of the South African government.

“I will NOT attend the G20 summit in Johannesburg,” Mr. Rubio posted on X late Wednesday, referring to the February 20 and 21 meeting. “South Africa is doing very bad things. Expropriating private property. Using G20 to promote ‘solidarity, equality, & sustainability.’ In other words, DEI and climate change.”

“My job is to advance America’s national interests, not waste taxpayer money or coddle anti-Americanismm” Mr. Rubio said. 

The G20 is a forum for international economic cooperation that was established in 1999.

Earlier this week, Mr. Trump accused the South African government of confiscating land with a law signed by the country’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, that would allow the state to seize land without compensation to address the country’s racial disparities in land ownership.

“South Africa is confiscating land, and treating certain classes of people VERY BADLY. It is a bad situation that the Radical Left Media doesn’t want to so much as mention. A massive Human Rights VIOLATION, at a minimum, is happening for all to see,” Mr. Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “The United States won’t stand for it, we will act. Also, I will be cutting off all future funding to South Africa until a full investigation of this situation has been completed!”

Mr. Trump appears to be referring to the signing of the Expropriation Act last month, which allows the South African government to take back land in specific cases where it’s not being used and in the public interest if redistributed. The act was created to address the long-lasting effects of the country’s racist apartheid era when Black citizens had their land taken away from them and were forced to repopulate in areas designated for non-whites.

Mr. Trump doubled down on his comments during a subsequent briefing with reporters, saying that South Africa’s “leadership is doing some terrible things.”

“So that’s under investigation right now. We’ll make a determination, and until such time as we find out what South Africa is doing,” he added. “They’re taking away land and confiscating land, and actually they’re doing things that are perhaps far worse than that.”

Mr. Musk, originally from South Africa, also took to social media to call out Mr. Ramaphosa’s government. He’s accused them of being anti-white.

“Why do you have openly racist ownership laws,” Mr. Musk said in a reply to a post on X from Mr. Ramaphosa.

South Africans have started to speak out on social media against Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk’s criticisms, claiming that they are basing comments on the controversial group known as AfriForum, an NGO that has been labeled as a “white nationalist, alt-right, and Afrikaner nationalist group,” according to a report from the Washington Post.

“A quick word to my American friends who might be tempted to believe what Donald Trump is saying about South Africa,” said one person in a video posted on TikTok that went viral with nearly 2 million views. The expletive-filled post went on to accuse Mr. Trump and Mr. Musk of being racist and said they had no “idea of what they’re talking about because what they doing is taking the words from a fringe racist group called AfriForum or other disaffected whites disgruntled by apartheid.”

“The redistribution of land is to address past inequities, and the vast majority of South Africans agree and understand why that’s happening and that it’s a good thing.”