Another area identified by Mr Trump is property rights. In a move that America’s president seems to have conflated with actual land seizures, on January 23rd Cyril Ramaphosa, his South African counterpart, signed the Expropriation Act, which gives the state new powers to expropriate property in the “public interest”.

Trump and his allies have targeted South Africa, promoting the false narrative that white people are being mistreated by the nation’s post-apartheid government.

South Africa's G20 presidency was meant to be an opportunity to get rich, powerful nations to pay attention to poorer countries' concerns such as burgeoning inequality, crippling sovereign debt and a lack of progress in the fight against climate change.