(Ret) Col. Chris Wyatt: How Cyril walked into Donald’s bear trap

“That went very badly for South Africa.” That is how US intelligence analyst, retired Colonel Chris Wyatt rates the showdown in the Oval Office between Presidents Donald Trump and Cyril Ramaphosa. On the issue of farm murders, Wyatt describes how Trump “lets Ramaphosa step into the bear trap. He opened it up. He left it there and Ramaphosa walked right into it…” Wyatt says the meeting was not a good look for either the African National Congress (ANC) or the Democratic Alliance (DA) whose leader John Steenhuisen was there in his capacity as Minister of Agriculture in the Government of National Unity (GNU). “I don't know if he's turned in his DA membership card for an ANC card yet, but maybe he should consider it. I mean, honestly, this really irritated a lot of DA voters very seriously.” As for billionaire Johann Rupert stating that he often doesn't lock his door at night, Wyatt charges: “That was so disingenuous and dishonest that it's heartbreaking. Johann Rupert, you know, he spoke for himself, not for South Africans in my view. And a lot of people think he sold South Africans down the river - and I'd have a hard time disagreeing with that assessment.” However, Wyatt praises golfer Ernie Els Ernie as “a patriot” who “stood up for South Africans”, while golfer Retief Goosen, who still has family living on a farm, walked a more “careful line, but he didn't shy away from the truth”. Overall, Wyatt says: "What we saw from the South African delegation is an attempt to politic…Trump wasn't politicking.”.Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here.Support South Africa’s bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here..Watch here:.Listen here:.Edited transcript of the interview.Chris Steyn (00:01.068)That meeting between Presidents Donald Trump and Cyril Ramaphosa made for riveting viewing tonight. Let's hear from US intelligence analyst, retired Colonel Chris Wyatt. Welcome, Colonel. Colonel (Ret) Chris Wyatt (00:16.29)Well, Chris, thanks for the welcome. Listen, I've got some leftover. I don't know if you want any of my popcorn here from that. Wow. That was something else. I got to tell you, man, man, that did not go well. Unfortunately, one of my predictions came true. That went very badly for South Africa. And I think also for one political party and that's not going to look too well. I think the Democratic Alliance if any response on my live broadcast is an indication of how people feel after what John Steenhuisen had to say in that meeting, it's not going to go well for the DA. Chris Steyn (00:49.08)Quite Colonel, let's look at that debate between Trump and Ramaphosa on genocide. Colonel (Ret) Chris Wyatt (00:58.732)Well, yeah, that's an interesting one there because Trump really didn't even say genocide. I don't recall him even saying it during the interview or the conversation, but he certainly, he certainly raised the question about farm murders and about South Africans being murdered. And he lets Ramaphosa step into the bear trap. He opened it up. He left it there and Ramaphosa walked right into it and he's okay…Let's dim the lights. My goodness. Then they showed Malema..look that, you know, he could have embarrassed Ramaphosa much more, could have played a clip of Ramaphosa saying, let Donald Trump keep his America, we’ll keep our South Africa. He could have played that. He also could have played clips of it going around the world screaming vaccine Apartheid, vaccine Apartheid, attacking America after we gave South Africa the respirators and we offered to let them be part of the trials and they refused. He could have played so many more things like this week when a member of the ANC government talked about, you know, well, people can go off to India if they don't like our laws and invest there. So many things could have been played. Trump really could have embarrassed him. I've already seen the backpedaling and the covering being done by South African media saying that it was a trap and Trump was impolite. Trump was very polite and professional. He greeted him and welcomed him as a world leader. And then he let him step on his crank. And that's exactly what Ramaphosa and his folks did. It was sad to see. Chris Steyn (02:13.102)And Cyril Ramaphosa being surprised to see those white crosses. He didn't know where they were. Colonel (Ret) Chris Wyatt (02:20.982)Well, you I almost want to think that's true. I don't think it is, but then I remember that he recently went to Johannesburg and didn't realise the dilapidated state of the Central Business District. And he talked about using Expropriation Without Compensation to confiscate the buildings. But I thought we were only going to do this in rare exceptions. So I am beginning to wonder if living behind gated communities and having BMW escorts and bodyguards and, you know, living a life of luxury for so many years has insulated Cyril Ramaphosa from the reality of the average South African. You know, maybe he doesn't know about the Witkruis Monument in Polokwane with the thousands of crosses on that mountain. Maybe he doesn't know about Black Monday. Honestly, Chris, I think that's a load of hogwash. He clearly knows. What an embarrassing moment for South Africa. He should have just kept his mouth shut and just said, and said nothing. But no, he said, where's this? I don't know about this. I've never seen this. Seriously? The world has seen these videos. That's just, I can't accept that response. Chris Steyn (03:17.486)And then he got Democratic Alliance leader John Stian Azen to do some more of his bidding. What did you think, Colonel? Colonel (Ret) Chris Wyatt (03:26.572)Well, again, Chris, know, John Steenhuisen has a difficult road to toe. I mean, he's the Leader of the Democratic Alliance. He's got to answer to voters and to constituents in his party, members of his party in Parliament, his Caucus. And he's also a member of Cabinet. The two are in conflict. There's a clear conflict of interest in doing both those jobs. And he chose to do that. And today we saw John Steenhuisen being the loyal member of Parliament as a Cabinet member to his President. And that's exactly what he did. So I don't know if he's turned in his DA membership card for an ANC card yet, but maybe he should consider it. I mean, honestly, this really irritated a lot of DA voters very seriously. Look, the thing that was most frustrating for me when John Steenhuisen spoke was he talked about, we joined this government voluntarily to prevent these radicals from taking over. But then the rest of the story is that the radicals might not have taken over, which was never going to happen, by the way. MK would never be in an alliance with the ANC because they’d eat the ANC from inside and Ramaphosa knows that. With the radical economic transformation, many of them having joined MK. So that would never work. That could have formed a coalition that got over 50%, but it would never have happened. And the EFF didn't have enough votes. And even if they did, there's no way that the EFF will be compliant and go along with what the ANC wants like the DA has been doing. So that would have fallen apart. So that's a disingenuous argument. And beyond that, what has happened since the DA has joined the government actually? Let's see. Well, they're showing you how little influence they have in the government. We've seen the Basic Education Laws Amendment Act signed into law. They were adamantly opposed to that and they virtually went silent when that happened. It's going to the courts, but that's a bit late. The horse is gone. You know, he's out at the gate. And then we have Parks Tau, who was one of the people in this delegation going there, trying to push a racist law to have a 3% corporate tax on all corporations to go into a slush fund for black owned businesses. Nobody else, just black owned businesses. Yeah, that's not good. Trump doesn't like racism. That's a bad look too there. And then we've had that proposed. And now we've also had Expropriation Without Compensation signed into law in December, surreptitiously by the President and to great fanfare signed at Davos, which is to show because by then the 30 days that the members of Parliament could get one third of Parliament to oppose it in the Constitutional Court had elapsed. So it became the law of land. Why pass a law if you don't intend to use it? See, that's the question that they never ask here. And so since the DA has joined the Government of National Unity, what has gone right for South Africa? Your growth hasn't increased, jobs haven't increased. Colonel (Ret) Chris Wyatt (05:53.816)Now you've been facing a 31% tariff, reciprocal tariff in the United States. And that was not adjusted at all today. You know, they thought they could offer, well, we'll offer you rare earth elements. I almost dropped my head when I heard that. I knew that was coming. This is really sad for South Africa, Chris. I feel badly for so many millions of South Africans who are likely to suffer the consequences of this disastrous event today. And a lot of people worry that Ramaphosa is going to convince Trump to stop the refugee programme. If anything, Colonel (Ret) Chris Wyatt (06:20.92)…Trump might accelerate it based on what happened today. And that's what we saw Chris before the TV cameras. We don't know what hiding went on behind the cameras because what Trump showed people in which the media in South Africa are gonna rubbish, he showed open source stuff, newspaper clippings and videos that are posted. What he didn't show is what US intelligence community has on South Africa's behaviour that's classified. What went on behind closed doors? We don't know. I guarantee it wasn't pretty and it's... Colonel (Ret) Chris Wyatt (06:49.144)Gosh, I'm heartbroken for South Africa today, but I’m not in least bit surprised. It's exactly what we expected to happen. Chris Steyn (06:57.582)Did I hear billionaire Johann Rupert saying that he often doesn't lock his doors at night? Colonel (Ret) Chris Wyatt (07:05.18)I think you are correct, Chris. I heard that as well. And it seems beyond implausible that he would leave his doors unlocked at night. Even being Johann Rupert and having security guards and, you know, Spetznatz or whatever teams he's got on his property. That's just ludicrous. That was so disingenuous and dishonest that it's heartbreaking. Listen, I mean, I guess you're probably gonna ask me my evaluation of the people went along on this. So, so John Steenhuisen, I think did his job for the president, but I don't think his job is for the president. It should be to serve the people of South Africa. And I don't think he served the people of South Africa very well, but he was articulate. I'll give him that. I don't know what he did off the scenes. He was talking to trade representative. Hopefully something happened there positive, but we don't know it's behind closed doors. And that of course his main job is to talk to trade representatives. So Steenhuisen maybe did okay, I don't know. But the golfers Ernie Els and Retief Goosen, I wanna say from my perspective that Ernie Els is a patriot. He stood up for South Africans. He stood in the breach and he did not let the nonsense pass. In his line, you don't, basically I'm paraphrasing, you don't correct a wrong with another wrong, basically. Just because Apartheid was wrong doesn't mean you can discriminate and abuse people in the opposite direction. That was brilliant. He stood up for the South African state and people should be proud of Ernie Els. He did that at personal risk, but I mean, these guys aren’t exactly 25, Chris, they've lived the life. But Ernie Els deserves a lot of credit. Retief Goosen, who still has family living on a farm, walked a more you know, careful line, but he didn't shy away from the truth. He said things are bad and he was honest. Johann Rupert, you know, he spoke for himself, not for South Africans in my view. And a lot of people think he sold South Africans down the river and I'd have a hard time disagreeing with that assessment. Chris Steyn (08:47.81)Now, if I heard Trump correctly, he said this issue has to be resolved, otherwise it will be the end of South Africa. Did I? Colonel (Ret) Chris Wyatt (08:57.828)I do believe I heard the same words, Chris. I think, you know, but neither one of us need to get an auditory test because that sure sounded like what I heard. That was a, it was a warning shot across the bow for what's coming behind closed doors. I think the South African delegation is going to go home very disappointed or they're going to come home and start, you know, playing the victim again, but that's not going to get them anywhere. If they think Iran is going to pour $14 billion of, you know, buying $14 billion with goods every year, or China is going to pick up their purchases or something…That's not going to happen. And they've already lost the foreign aid, which was benefiting NGOs and South Africans in general. I am hoping, I was hoping that we could fix this ship, stop the listing from, you know, starboard and bring it back on a level, even keel. Gosh, for an army guy, I'm using a lot of naval references, but anyway, bring the ship back on an even keel and that, we could actually get some progress here to lower the, the reciprocal tariffs and also to get the aid restored because people with HIV need that aid because the government of South Africa doesn't have the money. Cancelling PEPFAR was kind of disappointing from a moral standpoint on my part, but that's where we sit. And I don't think anything's going to improve for South Africa unless they have concessions. And I doubt they make concessions buying closed doors because it doesn't sound like they were ready to make them..Read more:.IRR’s Endres: Oval Office dustup mainly optics; hard talking behind closed doors what really matters.Chris Steyn (10:06.19)Well, they were fears hat this meeting was not going to go well. Now on a scale of one to ten, how badly did it go, Colonel? Colonel (Ret) Chris Wyatt (10:17.504)Okay. that's a good question. And I thought about that. If 10 was horrible and one was good, or maybe we should turn around because one is bad. Okay. So, so if it was really bad, how do they perform? They got a one. And if they went well, they would have got a 10. I would say that this is probably a four. It wasn't as bad as it could have been. Again, I think that Trump could have personally embarrassed Ramaphosa. He didn't. He embarrassed Malema, but now Malema thinks he's a hero because the world knows who he is, but, but he could have embarrassed Ramaphosa directly. And could have embarrassed his party much more. You notice that the videos were about Zuma, who's longer in the ANC and about Malema, who's longer in the ANC. So he gave Ramaphosa an out. And I think it could have gone far worse. Now the South African media is already playing this up like Trump ambushed him, was terrible, was unfair. That's nonsense. If you look at this objectively, Ramaphosa could have been embarrassed and frankly would have wanted to get up and walk out of that room. That didn't happen. So, you know, I'd say it was a four on a scale of bad. It could have been a one. Chris Steyn (11:17.966)But as you said, we don't know what is happening behind closed doors. Do you think what we have just seen could be quite the opposite of how America is going to go forward? Colonel (Ret) Chris Wyatt (11:33.528)Well, anything's possible, Chris. I mean, none of us in the room. Unfortunately, I tried to slip in my bugs, but they got caught by the Secret Service. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. I didn't do that. No, I get, I used to get my bugs at Radio Shack, but they're out of business. No, I'm just kidding. No, but seriously, that's possible. I didn't think it possible, but the bottom line I think here is that Trump's body language speaks volumes. He was not convinced. He was not buying it and he was not going to tolerate it. So, it’s nice to see politicians that sift through the nonsense. We so rarely see that in the world. And today we saw that. What we saw from the South African delegation is an attempt to politic. And that's fair. That's what they want to do. That's their prerogative. Trump wasn't politicking. He's like, no, Now Trump got a few things wrong, which they'll probably pick apart. For instance, those weren't where people were buried. Those crosses; that was put up to symbolise each person butchered and murdered on a farm. And that, that procession went on for several kilometers. I remember when that event unfolded, I covered it. And then the…mine, those aren't graves, those are crosses representing thousands of people who have been murdered on farms who happen to be white. So that's a slight nuance, but I mean, that's not really important. The image playing in the White House of Malema singing in front of a packed stadium of tens of thousands of people, Kill the Boer, Shoot the Boer, that's indelibly imprinted on the mind of people who don't believe what's really happening. That's, you can't buy that kind of advertising. That's devastating to South Africa, to the ANC. Chris Steyn (12:58.198)Also when he spoke about people being murdered and then their land being taken, that's not actually factually correct. Colonel (Ret) Chris Wyatt (13:04.991)Yeah, that's a good point you're making there. That's not factually correct, but it really isn't your main. I, I wish he was more articulate in this. I wish I was his advisor briefing him and getting ready for these things. But the bottom line is that people are being butchered and murdered on farms and in the cities and all over the country. And it is happening because of people's ethnicity, because they're presumed to be wealthy or because they are white to chase them off the farms. That is happening. So it's important that Trump talked about it and it was inarticulate. But that'll be the focus of the media. They'll go on about those two things rather than focusing. Here's the one thing that I have to say, Chris, what exactly did anybody in the South African delegation refute effectively? Did they deny that this… nothing, nothing. Chris Steyn (13:40.974)I was surprised. I was surprised that they didn't correct him when he made a mistake. Colonel (Ret) Chris Wyatt (13:49.516)Well, I think they were probably warned, don't correct Trump because it'll go very badly for you. But they didn't refute anything by coming back and offering another example of something. One thing was a very bad moment, it was a Zelensky like moment is when a reporter asked a question of Trump, Ramaphosa interrupted and said, I'll answer that. That is..you're the guest. This is a diplomatic meeting. That is, that was highly inappropriate. And I don't think Trump's going to take a slight from it, but he did when Zelensky did that. He took it personally, but he let Ramaphosa go and Ramaphosa dug his own grave. So that's probably why he let him do it. Chris Steyn (14:21.184)You spoke about body language. I got the sense that Trump was immovable. Colonel (Ret) Chris Wyatt (14:28.76)Well, I got the sense he was very irritated and annoyed from the outset. First off, I don't know the optics. I don't know if the South African delegation was late intentionally or the White House asked them to come later, but the scheduled time was 11h30 for the greeting. It happened at almost noon. Almost noon. That's like, you know, was he on Ramaphosa time, just like his evening calls during COVID. I don't know. It may not be Ramaphosa's fault. It may have been the White House, it have been the Secret Service. We don't know. But the optic is bad and that's unfortunate for South Africa because I think that they were late judging from the way that Trump received him. Trump was angry the day, the moment he walked out the door, he was not happy. You could see it. His demeanour was very stern and he was not happy. Usually he's jovial when people show up. Now when they got inside and they sat down and they surprisingly turned the cameras on for us, that wasn't supposed to happen until after lunch, a working lunch. But because of the lateness, they went with it right away. And I think they did that because of the time in South Africa, the six hour difference. They wanted people to see the South Africa. Let's talk now which surprised a lot of us. I almost missed it. One of my, hey, they're going live. So I rushed over there and got it. But Trump was very angry from the outset and I suspect that they came late. That's my suspicion. I don't know that. I don't know that definitively, but reading Trump's body language, it looked like he was angry that people showed up late and he's been waiting. You don't keep the leader of the Free World waiting. That's just wrong. It's bad for him. Chris Steyn (15:46.506)And also, and Trump, sorry, Ramaphosa almost, okay, you're saying that, but I need help, we need help and investment. Colonel (Ret) Chris Wyatt (15:55.884)Yeah, I heard that, but I mean, you're the same people that don't want Starlink unless you force Elon Musk to give 30% of his equity to based on a skin pigmentation. You're the same people that, as Johann Rupert, to his credit, the one thing he did correctly say is we used to get drones from America, but then Zuma stopped it because they were spying on South Africa, which they weren't doing. It's ridiculous. So you want our technology, but you ban us from shipping it there. This is ludicrous. This was a song and dance to try to hoodwink Trump. And it didn't work. It didn't work. Chris Steyn (16:25.038)Thank you. was United States intelligence analyst retired Colonel Chris Wyatt giving his take on that meeting between Presidents Donald Trump and Cyril Ramaphosa at the White House. Thank you, Colonel. I'm Chris Steyn. Colonel (Ret) Chris Wyatt (16:40.088)You're very welcome.

(Ret) Col. Chris Wyatt: How Cyril walked into Donald’s bear trap

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