Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva publicly pushed back against Donald Trump on Monday, insisting that South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has every right to attend the upcoming G20 summit regardless of US opposition. Speaking in Hannover alongside German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Lula said he had told Ramaphosa directly: "He must attend. He can't not go just because Trump said he wouldn't." Relations between Washington and Pretoria have deteriorated sharply in recent months, with the Trump administration cutting all financial aid to South Africa over unsubstantiated claims of persecution of the white Afrikaner minority, expelling the South African ambassador, and clashing with Pretoria over its International Court of Justice case accusing Israel of genocide.