Johannesburg – United States President Donald Trump has confirmed he will not attend the G20 Leaders’ Summit to be hosted by South Africa later this year. Instead, Vice President JD Vance will represent Washington at the gathering.
Trump, who returned to office in January, has adopted a confrontational tone towards Pretoria. He used the announcement to confirm that next year’s G20 meeting will take place at his Doral golf resort in Miami, Florida, under the coordination of Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
Bessent, who had already avoided the Finance Ministers’ session of the G20 in Cape Town in February, criticised the South African presidency of the group. He argued that the forum had become too large and pledged that the US would “whittle the G20 down back to basics”, calling Pretoria’s summit “a G100”. He said the Miami edition would be more focused.
Trump has already extended invitations for the 2025 gathering, with Polish President Karol Nawrocki confirming he has been asked to attend.
Diplomatic relations between Washington and Pretoria remain strained, with tensions affecting the level of US involvement during South Africa’s leadership of the G20.
The United States is also preparing to host the 2026 G20 Summit at the Doral resort in December, the same venue Trump had originally earmarked for the G7 meeting in 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic forced its cancellation.
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