Given the dire state of relations between the US and SA and all the falsehoods Trump is spreading about this country, sparks could fly at the meeting between the two presidents.

Given the dire state of relations between the US and SA and all the falsehoods Trump is spreading about this country, sparks could fly at the meeting between the two presidents.

President Cyril Ramaphosa will have a high-stakes encounter with President Donald Trump in the White House on Wednesday, 21 May, which could either reset South Africa's dreadful relations with the US - or could become a disastrous Zelensky-style ambush.

It's a big gamble for Ramaphosa, but one he clearly feels he has to take to try to rescue relations that could hardly plunge any lower. As his office announced the visit on 14 May, unconfirmed reports emerged from Washington that the US would be pulling out entirely from the G20, which South Africa is organising this year (culminating in a summit in Johannesburg in November).

Speaking to reporters on 15 May, Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said the government had not yet received any official communication that the US would suspend its work on South Africa's G20.

Some fear Ramaphosa could be on a suicide mission and that he will be attacked before the cameras in the White House by Trump and his team - as <a...