Donald Trump has announced that the United States will not participate in the upcoming G20 summit in South Africa, citing widely discredited claims that white people are being persecuted in the country.

Calling the decision to host the meeting in Johannesburg later this month a "total disgrace," Trump criticized South Africa for what he described as ongoing human rights abuses.

Posting on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump wrote: "It is a total disgrace that the G20 will be held in South Africa.

"Afrikaners (people who are descended from Dutch settlers, and also French and German immigrants) are being killed and slaughtered, and their land and farms are being illegally confiscated. No US government official will attend as long as these human rights abuses continue."

Previously, Trump had suggested that South Africa should not be a G20 member and indicated that he would send Vice President JD Vance in his place. However, the White House now confirms that no US official will attend the summit.

The South African foreign ministry described the US decision as "regrettable," emphasizing that no political party in the country, including those representing Afrikaners and the white community, has claimed that a genocide is occurring.

In an official statement, the ministry said: "The South African government wishes to state, for the record, that the characterisation of Afrikaners as an exclusively white group is ahistorical. Furthermore, the claim that this community faces persecution, is not substantiated by fact."

Since returning to office in January, Trump has repeatedly accused South Africa of discriminating against its white minority. In May, he raised the issue directly with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in the Oval Office. The Trump administration has granted refugee status to Afrikaners, citing what it called a "genocide," and last week announced plans to prioritize white South Africans in a cap on refugee admissions.

South Africa’s government has strongly rejected these claims, labeling the notion of a white genocide as "widely discredited and unsupported by reliable evidence" and noting the "limited uptake" of the refugee offer. In February, a South African court dismissed the claims as "clearly imagined."

Every year, a different member state hosts the G20 summit and sets its agenda, with the US slated to host the meeting following South Africa.