That the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize went to a South African figure should be all the more galling to President Donald Trump.
The U.S. president has been lambasting South Africa and its government policies since early in this White House term saying Pretoria is permitting a genocidal campaign against white farmers. The country's president, Cyril Ramaphosa, sternly pushed back on the assertions during an Oval Office meeting with Trump in May 2025.
Nonetheless, the U.S. president — who has publicly and vocally campaigned for the award — was this time passed over in favor of South African legal scholar and former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navanethem "Navi" Pillay. Last year, it went to Venezuela democratic advocateMaría Corina Machado, who subsequently
gave the award to Trump.
"In awarding this year’s Nobel Peace Prize, the Norwegian Nobel Committee wants to remind the world that the rule of law — national and international — underpins the system we have set up to ensure peace and resolve conflicts non-violently," the committee said in a press release. "Peace requires justice."
That has been interpreted at least in part as a rejection of Trump administration claims and policies toward the South African government — allegations that have a connection to Mar-a-Lago and Elon Musk.
What has Trump said about South Africa this term?
Trump issued at least a handful Truth Social posts, starting weeks after his return to the White House, that were scathingly critical of Ramaphosa's government.
In a Feb. 2 post, Trump wrote that "South Africa is confiscating land and treating certain classes of people VERY BADLY," and asserted the conduct amounted to a "massive" human rights violation. He then threatened to end "all future funding to South Africa until a full investigation of this situation has been completed!"
The caustic attacks escalated from there.
Trump then boycotted global meeting in South Africa
Calling the scheduling of the 2025 G20 Leaders' Summit in Johannesburg a "total disgrace," Trump announced in November of last year that the U.S. government would not send a delegation to the gathering.
"Afrikaners (People who are descended from Dutch settlers, and also French and German immigrants) are being killed and slaughtered, and their land and farms are being illegally confiscated," Trump alleged.
The South African foreign ministry again refuted Trump's claims and said it was "regrettable" the United States would not participate.
Because Washington was not present, the G20 meeting ended without the ceremonial hand-off of the G20 leadership to a U.S. embassy official for this year's meeting at Trump National resort in Doral.
Trump, nonetheless, used the change in protocol to announce he would not invite South Africa to be represented at this year's event.
The connection to Mar-a-Lago. And to Musk too?
Media reports and analysis have noted that Trump's criticism of South Africa mirrored claims, numerous ones without substantiation, by the world's richest man Elon Musk.
In fact, Trump began firing his social media salvos in early 2025, when his political alliance with Musk was in its heyday.
A handful of the posts were rifled off as Trump was at or en route to or from Mar-a-Lago, including the one stating South Africa would be excluded from this year's G20 in South Florida. In one occasion, in March 2025, Musk was listed among the passengers on Air Force One headed to Palm Beach County.
Former South African diplomat Ebrahim Rasool claimed in May 2025 that Musk has been influencing U.S. policy, but out of commercial interest for his global satellite venture and not because of race-based attacks in his country.
"It is very clear that you cannot get past the White House if you don't start speaking to Musk about Starlink. That's why it was so clear that in the press conference with Trump, Starlink came up and so forth," he said.
Musk was also present in the Trump-Ramaphosa meeting in May 2025. But the U.S. president sought to distance Musk from South Africa diplomacy at that gathering in the White House.
"I don't want to get Elon involved. That's all I have to do, get him into another thing," Trump said to light laughter. "But Elon happens to be from South Africa. This is what Elon wanted. He actually came here on a different subject — sending rockets to Mars — OK? He likes that better. He likes that subject better. But Elon's from South Africa, and I don't want to talk to him about that. I don't think it's fair to him."
Antonio Fins is a politics and business editor at The Palm Beach Post,part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach him at afins@pbpost.com. Help support our journalism. Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Nobel Peace Prize 2026. The Trump, Mar-a-Lago and Elon Musk backdrop
