When US President Donald Trump hosts the Group of Twenty at his private golf resort in Miami next year, he will decide who is on the guest list, UNN reports, citing Bloomberg.
Bloomberg draws this conclusion after the US president said on social media on Wednesday that he would not invite South Africa, which chairs the G20 this year and has been angering the US president for some time.
It may be a breach of long-established protocol for a leader to decide which members of the bloc can attend a summit, let alone host the event at his own hotel, but Trump has shown little concern for either convention or the multilateral order, the media adds.
Now questions are beginning to accumulate about who will go and who will not, and not least about which countries might be among the participants. This move puts other G20 members in a difficult position: ignore the insult and still make the trip, or show solidarity and risk feeling the full force of Trump’s retaliatory measures in the form of trade tariffs, technology embargoes, or something even more serious.
“This is one of the most important multilateral forums we have left in the world,” and a format that “we should not unnecessarily diminish,” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said in Berlin on Thursday, responding to a question about Trump’s statements.
By boycotting the Johannesburg summit last weekend, “the American government unjustifiably lost influence, including in a part of the world that is becoming increasingly important,” Merz said.
South Africa had been preparing for its exclusion from the summit at Trump’s National Golf Club in Doral, and officials in the country remain concerned that the US may try to exclude the country from the group entirely. However, any change in the organization’s composition would require consensus among the G20 countries, as was the case before the 2023 summit in India, when the African Union was admitted as a full member.
The American leader’s outburst of anger was the culmination of a conflict with President Cyril Ramaphosa, caused by Trump’s repeated unsubstantiated claims that South Africa is committing genocide against white Afrikaners. Ramaphosa tried to convince Trump to stop developing the conspiracy theory during a visit to the White House in May, but was instead caught off guard by a video montage amplifying these claims.
The treatment of Africa’s largest industrialized economy, the first African country to host the G20, demonstrates the president’s penchant for using the club of US global standing for domestic political purposes.
South Africa “does not accept insults from another country regarding its value of participating in global platforms,” Ramaphosa’s administration said in a statement, calling Trump’s remarks “sad.”
Trump bans South Africa from G20 summit in Miami: what’s the reason?27.11.25, 02:04 • 10286 views
They can also be disruptive, as Merz hinted. Further undermining Washington’s position in the countries of the so-called Global South, there is a risk of playing into the hands of China and Russia, members of the BRICS forum, which Trump has condemned as anti-American.
“This bullying of major non-Western powers makes it easier for China and Russia to gain broader support in the Global South,” said C. Raja Mohan, honorary professor at the Jindal Institute of American Studies in Delhi. “There is no reason to believe that Trump seeks to regain leadership in the Global South.”
It is unclear how the US will enforce Trump’s ban on South Africa’s participation or any other country, although the State Department will presumably not issue visas to officials wishing to attend.
Be that as it may, his rhetoric is consistent with a larger vision of reshaping the world order to his liking, choosing club members with little regard for other governments.
Just last week, the US hinted at the possibility of re-inviting Russia to reconfigure the former G8 as part of a 28-point plan to end the war in Ukraine, catching Kyiv and its allies by surprise. The G8 became the G7 in 2014 after Russia was expelled for its illegal annexation of Crimea.
Other countries that could benefit from Trump’s favor include Poland, which has long sought admission to the G20. In September, Trump invited Poland’s new president, the right-wing nationalist Karol Nawrocki, to the Miami summit in an unspecified capacity, showering praise on the relative political newcomer and former amateur boxer whom he had endorsed in the election.
This year, Poland’s economy exceeded $1 trillion, and the country has repeatedly received praise from Washington for significant defense spending, mainly on the purchase of American weapons. Nawrocki’s reputation is bolstered by the belief that Poland’s security and future depend on stronger ties with Trump’s America, rather than with Brussels, unlike Prime Minister Donald Tusk, former head of the European Council and a long-time critic of Trump.
“Poland has done wonderfully, and the person who won the election is just fantastic,” Trump told conservative TV channel GB News this month.
Trump said South Africa should not be in the G20 and refused to go to the summit05.11.25, 23:15 • 10346 views
