CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — South Africa's new special envoy to the United States is already under scrutiny for calling U.S. President Donald Trump a racist, homophobic and narcissistic "right-winger" in a speech in 2020.
Mcebisi Jonas, a former deputy finance minister, was appointed Monday by President Cyril Ramaphosa as his representative to Washington, tasked with rebuilding South Africa's deteriorating relationship with the U.S. under Trump.
The Trump administration expelled the South African ambassador last month.
Trump has singled out South Africa, issuing an executive order in February suspending all U.S. funding to the country over what he claimed are its anti-white and anti-American policies.
South Africa's ambassador was expelled from the U.S. for saying during a webinar that the politics of Trump and the Make America Great Again movement were partly the result of a “supremacist instinct.”
The Trump administration called the ambassador, Ebrahim Rasool, a “race-baiting politician” who hated Trump. South Africa hasn't named a new ambassador.
The new South African envoy's speech criticizing Trump and his first term was delivered on Nov. 8, 2020, five days after the election where Joe Biden defeated Trump. His comments have been circulated in the media.
“Right now, the U.S. is undergoing a watershed moment, with Biden the certain winner in the presidential race against the racist, homophobic Donald Trump,” Jonas said. “How we got to a situation where a narcissistic right-winger took charge of the world's greatest economic and military powerhouse is something that we need to ponder over. It is something that all democracies need to ponder over.”
Jonas was delivering South Africa's annual Ahmed Kathrada Lecture, where public figures are invited to give a speech for the foundation of Kathrada, one of the anti-apartheid activists put on trial by the white minority government in the 1960s and imprisoned alongside Nelson Mandela.
Jonas' speech largely focused on inequality, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and promoting the ideas of globalism and international trade. “Hopefully the defeat of Trump will deal a blow to the deglobalization lobby,” he said.
There was no immediate comment from him or the government over those remarks. After he was appointed, Jonas said he would do his best to “promote a healthy working relationship” between the countries but was aware of the "difficulties that lie ahead considering recent global developments.”
South Africa has been a prime target for Trump's criticism.
He has falsely accused the South African government of allowing violent attacks on white minority farmers and seizing their land, claims that have been rejected by political parties across the spectrum and experts in South Africa.
A new land expropriation law does allow the government to expropriate some land without compensation as long as it's in the public interest. No land has been taken under it. But its passing led groups representing some of South Africa's white minority to lobby the Trump administration for help, saying their land was likely to be targeted.
Trump has also announced a program offering white South African farmers refugee status in the U.S.
AP Africa news: https://apnews.com/hub/africa
President Donald Trump gestures to the crowd as he departs after welcoming the 2025 College Football National Champions, the Ohio State University football team, during an event on the South Lawn of the White House, Monday, April 14, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's photo portrait display at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery has had references to his two impeachments removed, the latest apparent change at the collection of museums he has accused of bias as he asserts his influence over how official presentations document U.S. history.
The wall text, which summarized Trump's first presidency and noted his 2024 comeback victory, was part of the museum's “American Presidents” exhibition. The description had been placed alongside a photograph of Trump taken during his first term. Now, a different photo appears without any accompanying text block, though the text was available online. Trump was the only president whose display in the gallery, as seen Sunday, did not include any extended text.
The White House did not say whether it sought any changes. Nor did a Smithsonian statement in response to Associated Press questions. But Trump ordered in August that Smithsonian officials review all exhibits before the nation celebrates the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence on July 4. The Republican administration said the effort would “ensure alignment with the president’s directive to celebrate American exceptionalism, remove divisive or partisan narratives, and restore confidence in our shared cultural institutions.”
Trump's original “portrait label," as the Smithsonian calls it, notes Trump's Supreme Court nominations and his administration's development of COVID-19 vaccines. That section concludes: “Impeached twice, on charges of abuse of power and incitement of insurrection after supporters attacked the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, he was acquitted by the Senate in both trials.”
Then the text continues: “After losing to Joe Biden in 2020, Trump mounted a historic comeback in the 2024 election. He is the only president aside from Grover Cleveland (1837– 1908) to have won a nonconsecutive second term.”
Asked about the display, White House spokesman Davis Ingle celebrated the new photograph, which shows Trump, brow furrowed, leaning over his Oval Office desk. Ingle said it ensures Trump's “unmatched aura ... will be felt throughout the halls of the National Portrait Gallery.”
The portrait was taken by White House photographer Daniel Torok, who is credited in the display that includes medallions noting Trump is the 45th and 47th president. Similar numerical medallions appear alongside other presidents' painted portraits that also include the more extended biographical summaries such as what had been part of Trump's display.
Sitting presidents are represented by photographs until their official paintings are commissioned and completed.
Ingle did not answer questions about whether Trump or a White House aide, on his behalf, asked for anything related to the portrait label.
The gallery said in a statement that it had previously rotated two photographs of Trump from its collection before putting up Torok's work.
“The museum is beginning its planned update of the America’s Presidents gallery which will undergo a larger refresh this Spring,” the gallery statement said. “For some new exhibitions and displays, the museum has been exploring quotes or tombstone labels, which provide only general information, such as the artist’s name.”
For now, references to Presidents Andrew Johnson and Bill Clinton being impeached in 1868 and 1998, respectively, remain as part of their portrait labels, as does President Richard Nixon's 1974 resignation as a result of the Watergate scandal.
And, the gallery statement noted, “The history of Presidential impeachments continues to be represented in our museums, including the National Museum of American History.”
Trump has made clear his intentions to shape how the federal government documents U.S. history and culture. He has offered an especially harsh assessment of how the Smithsonian and other museums have featured chattel slavery as a seminal variable in the nation's development but also taken steps to reshape how he and his contemporary rivals are depicted.
In the months before his order for a Smithsonian review, he fired the head archivist of the National Archives and said he was firing the National Portrait Gallery's director, Kim Sajet, as part of his overhaul. Sajet maintained the backing of the Smithsonian's governing board, but she ultimately resigned.
At the White House, Trump has designed a notably partisan and subjective “Presidential Walk of Fame” featuring gilded photographs of himself and his predecessors — with the exception of Biden, who is represented by an autopen — along with plaques describing their presidencies.
The White House said at the time that Trump himself was a primary author of the plaques. Notably, Trump's two plaques praise the 45th and 47th president as a historically successful figure while those under Biden's autopen stand-in describe the 46th executive as “by far, the worst President in American History” who “brought our Nation to the brink of destruction.”
Barrow reported from Atlanta.
A photograph of President Donald Trump and a short plaque next to it are on display at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery's "American Presidents" exhibit on Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026 in Washington. (AP Photo/Anna Johnson)
President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with oil executives in the East Room of the White House, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
