This is all white farmers who were buried, said Trump and held up a printout of an article with the image, during the aforementioned meeting on Wednesday in the Oval Office.
But the image was actually a screenshot of a video published on February 3, and subsequently verified by the news agency's fact-checker. The video shows aid workers lifting white body bags in the Congolese city of Goma, after deadly clashes with Rwanda-backed M23 rebels.
"Only Reuters"
Seeing Trump holding the article with the screenshot of the video came as a shock, says video journalist Djaffar Al Katanty, who filmed the clip.
That day was extremely difficult for journalists to get access. I had to negotiate directly with M23 and coordinate with ICRC to film. Only Reuters has the video, he says to Reuters.
The White House has not responded to Reuters' request for a comment.
Trump has also previously made unfounded claims that white people in South Africa are being subjected to "genocide", and among other things, claimed that the government in Pretoria is seizing land from whites.
He also played a video clip during the meeting, which he claimed proved the allegations. The clip included a video that, according to Trump, showed graves belonging to white farmers, marked with white crosses.
Memorial site – not a graveyard
But the video, filmed at a highway that connects the small towns of Newcastle and Normandien in South Africa, actually shows a memorial site and not graves.
It was a memorial site. Not a permanent memorial site, but a temporary one, says Rob Hoatson, who set up the memorial site to create public debate and draw attention to the murders of two farmers five years ago.
Hoatson says that Trump has a tendency to exaggerate, but adds that he is glad that the American president is bringing attention to the issue.
