Investigating Trump's claims that White South African farmers are victims of genocide
60 Minutes travels to South Africa to investigate President Trump's claims that White farmers are victims of a genocide that reporters aren't covering.
13:11
https://youtu.be/TQfczHaGBE4
They Tried to debunk what Trump saidWhat took them so long?
==60 Minutes - Newsmakers
Amid disputed claims of genocide, Trump welcomes White South African refugees to U.S.==
By Anderson Cooper, Michael H Gavshon, Nadim Roberts
February 22, 2026 / 7:00 PM
In November, President Trump announced he would, quote, "permanently pause migration from all third world countries" to the U.S. after a member of the National Guard was killed, and another badly wounded in Washington, allegedly by an Afghan refugee. But there is one group of refugees the Trump administration is welcoming: it's expediting the resettlement of White South Africans, mostly Afrikaners, who are descendants of Dutch settlers. President Trump says that White farmers are victims of a genocide. The South African government disputes that. We went to South Africa to see for ourselves.
In the rolling hills of KwaZulu-Natal province in the southeast of South Africa, we met Darrel Brown, a seventh-generation rancher and farmer.
But that calling has often come with risks. Ten years ago, his 82-year-old father was brutally attacked on the farm by robbers looking for guns and money. Then, in 2020, Brown's friends Glen and Vida Rafferty, were murdered in a robbery on their farm nearby.
Anderson Cooper: Your father was attacked. You've had friends murdered. Do you live in fear?
Darrel Brown: I certainly live carefully. We're aware of what's happening around us. We don't take silly chances.
We came to Darrel Brown's farm because of what President Trump said last May about the murders of South African farmers.
President Trump (in May 2025): It's a genocide that's taking place that you people don't want to write about, but it's a terrible thing that's taking place and farmers are being killed. They happen to be White.
Nine days later, South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa came to the White House. Elon Musk, who was born in South Africa and has also made claims of genocide, was there, too. What happened next seemed to take Ramaphosa by surprise.
President Trump (in May 2025): Excuse me, turn the lights down.
President Trump showed several videos, proof, the White House said, of the violence targeting White farmers.
President Trump (in May 2025): These are burial sites right here, burial sites, over a thousand, of White farmers.
We found the spot where those white crosses were once planted. It's a lonely pot-holed road not far from Darrel Brown's ranch.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/amid-disputed-genocide-claims-trump-welcomes-white-south-african-refugees-to-us-60-minutes-transcript/