South Africa Wanted to Talk Trade. Then Trump Turned Down the Lights.

For President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa, the meeting in the Oval Office was meant to be a chance to hit the reset button.

He did everything to get the mood right. He got President Trump to giggle with a joke about golf. He offered him a book. And he kept the compliments flowing, thanking Mr. Trump for providing South Africa with respirators during the Covid-19 pandemic.

“It really touched my heart,” Mr. Ramaphosa said.

In the build up to Mr. Ramaphosa’s meeting in the White House on Wednesday, South African officials stressed that they would not focus on Mr. Trump’s recent claims of white genocide, which are widely acknowledged as false. Instead they would talk about tariffs, South Africa’s valuable minerals and strengthening business ties between the two countries.

But Mr. Ramaphosa walked away from the meeting bruised and still carrying uncertainty over the future of his country’s crucial relationship with the United States. His effort to avoid the discussion of the so-called genocide and the recent arrival of 59 white South Africans labeled refugees by the Trump administration appeared to backfire spectacularly.

Now, South Africa finds itself with more work to do to avert steep tariffs, secure a new trade agreement and set the record straight on Mr. Trump’s continued accusations of racism against white people, who on the whole are much better off economically than the Black majority in South Africa.

“Today’s performance, if it does not lead to meaningful reconciliation, will only create more downward pressure on poor South Africans who struggle,” said Patrick Gaspard, the former United States ambassador to South Africa.