Retief Goosen: “Some Buddy Farmers Got Killed; My 80-Year-Old Mom Attacked in Her House”; Trump NUKES NBC’s Peter Alexander on Jet Question: “You Don’t Have What It Takes”; Shows Recent Murder Headlines

During the May 2025 Oval Office confrontation, two-time U.S. Open champion Retief Goosen provided first-person testimony of the farm violence in South Africa. “I grew up in an area in South Africa, the region of farmland, the area of Polokwane. Obviously, my dad was a property developer as well as a part-time farmer. Yeah, some of his buddy farmers got killed. The farm is still going — my brother’s running. But it’s a constant battle with farms trying to get, they’re trying to burn the farms down to chase you away.” On his family’s safety: “They live behind electric fences. It is constant whenever you leave that something could happen. Both of them have been attacked in their houses. My mom’s been attacked in their houses when she was 80.” When NBC’s Peter Alexander tried to pivot to the Qatar jet story, Trump exploded: “You don’t have what it takes to be a reporter. You’re not smart enough… Brian Roberts and the people that run NBC ought to be investigated. They are so terrible.”

Goosen’s Family Experience

Retief Goosen’s testimony provided specific, first-person detail about the farm attack pattern.

“I grew up in an area in South Africa, the region of farmland, the area of Polokwane,” Goosen said. “There are some issues up there.”

He described his father: “Obviously, my dad was a proper developer as well as a part-time farmer.”

He gave the direct evidence: “Yeah, some of these buddy farmers got killed.”

He described the current situation: “The farm is still going. My brother’s running. But it’s a constant battle with farms trying to get, they’re trying to burn the farms down to chase you away.”

Polokwane (formerly Pietersburg) is the capital of Limpopo Province in northern South Africa. The region has significant agricultural activity, with many commercial farms operated by white Afrikaner families for multiple generations. The Limpopo region has been among the areas most affected by farm attacks and murders.

Goosen’s testimony captured several elements of the farm attack pattern:

Strategic arson: “They’re trying to burn the farms down to chase you away.” This was not random robbery; it was deliberate destruction of agricultural infrastructure with the apparent goal of forcing farmers to abandon their land.

Personal connections: “Some of his buddy farmers got killed.” This was not abstract statistics. Goosen’s father had personal friends among the murdered farmers. The social network of white Afrikaner farmers had been ruptured by violence.

Continued operations under threat: “The farm is still going. My brother’s running.” Families that had not yet been driven out were continuing to operate their farms under siege conditions, with constant awareness that attacks could come at any time.

”Electric Fences” and the Daily Threat

Goosen described the specific security situation.

Asked if his family felt safe, Goosen responded: “They live behind electric fences, you know, trying to be at night safe. But it is constant whenever you leave that something could happen.”

He made the disturbing specific claim: “Both of them has been attacked in their houses.”

And particularly pointedly: “My mom’s been attacked in their houses when she was 80.”

The electric fence description matched the broader pattern of security measures white South African farmers had adopted. Many farms had been transformed into fortified compounds:

• Electric fences around perimeter
• Multiple physical barriers within the property
• Panic buttons connected to private security firms
• Automated gates and security systems
• Weapon stockpiles for self-defense
• Communication networks among neighboring farms

The financial cost of these security measures was substantial, cutting into already-narrow agricultural margins. The psychological cost — living under siege conditions, with the constant awareness that attacks could come at any time — was devastating.

Goosen’s specific detail about his mother being attacked “when she was 80” was particularly affecting. An 80-year-old woman being violently attacked in her own home was not opportunistic crime; it was targeted violence against specific vulnerable people. The attack on an elderly woman suggested attackers who were not seeking merely monetary gain but were acting with specific hostility toward the victim or her family.

”Water Is Great, But Equipment Gets Stolen”

The water infrastructure issue was another practical dimension.

Asked how the water was, Goosen answered: “The water is great. Obviously, all the water comes out of the ball hole out of ground for us there.”

But he qualified this: “But yeah, it is a battle to get the water out sometimes when all the equipment gets stolen all the time that you’re trying to get the water out.”

The “borehole” (groundwater well) water supply was a specific South African agricultural infrastructure. Farmers depended on pumps to extract water for irrigation, livestock, and household use. When pumps and associated equipment were stolen, the farm operations would effectively halt until replacement equipment could be installed.

The systematic theft of agricultural equipment was another form of pressure against white farmers:

• Solar panels for water pumping systems
• Electrical wiring and transformers
• Pumps and motors
• Vehicles and farm implements
• Fencing and gate mechanisms
• Livestock themselves

Each theft required replacement at the farmer’s expense. The cumulative cost — both in direct losses and in the labor required to maintain operations — made farming economically marginal even when the actual farm land remained productive.

Peter Alexander’s Pivot

NBC News correspondent Peter Alexander attempted to shift the conversation.

“Mr. President, the Pentagon announced that it would be accepting a guitar jet to be used as Air Force One,” Alexander asked.

The misstatement “guitar jet” for “Qatar jet” was presumably a transcription error, but Alexander was asking about the Qatar Boeing 747 that had been offered to the Defense Department.

Trump’s response was immediate and harsh: “What are you talking about? I want to ask you this question. You know, you to get out of here, what does this have to do with the guitar jet?”

He explained the gift: “They’re giving the United States Air Force a jet, okay? And it’s a great thing. We’re talking about a lot of other things.”

He identified the tactic: “It’s NBC trying to get off the subject of what you just saw.”

He delivered the personal attack: “You are a real, you know, you’re a terrible reporter. Number one, you don’t have what it takes to be a reporter. You’re not smart enough.”

He elaborated: “But for you to go into a subject about a jet that was given to the United States Air Force, which is a very nice thing. They also gave 5.1 trillion dollars worth of investment in addition to the jet."

"Brian Roberts… Ought to Be Investigated”

Trump extended the attack to NBC’s corporate leadership.

“You ought to go back to your studio at NBC,” Trump said. “Because Brian Roberts and the people that run that place, they ought to be investigated.”

He stated the severity: “They are so terrible the way you run that network. And you’re a disgrace. No more questions from you.”

He dismissed the reporter: “Go ahead. His name is Peter Suffler. He’s a terrible reporter. Quiet. Quiet. Quiet.”

Brian Roberts is the CEO of Comcast, which owned NBCUniversal through 2025 (with some restructuring occurring around this period). The “ought to be investigated” reference suggested that Trump believed NBC’s news coverage warranted regulatory or criminal scrutiny.

The substantive reason for Trump’s fury was clear. Alexander had asked about the Qatar jet precisely when Trump was discussing evidence of white South African farmer deaths. The implication was that the jet — which was a minor story about a foreign government donating a plane to the U.S. Air Force — was more important than systematic racial violence in South Africa.

Trump’s interpretation was that NBC was deliberately trying to redirect attention from a story that made the Ramaphosa government look bad (and supported the Trump administration’s Afrikaner refugee policy) to a story that could be framed negatively against the Trump administration. The media’s priority, in Trump’s view, was political advantage rather than substantive information.

The “Recent News Articles”

Trump then produced recent headlines to display.

A reporter asked what Trump wanted Ramaphosa to do: “What would you like President Ramaphosa to do about the situation that we’ve just seen on the screen?”

Trump responded: “I don’t know.”

He then pulled out the articles: “Now, look, these are articles over the last few days. Death of people. Death. Death. Death. Horrible death. Death.”

He read a headline: “White South Africans are fleeing because of the violence and racist laws.”

He continued: “You say what would I like to do? I don’t know what to do. Look at this. White South African couples say that they were attacked violently.”

He continued reading: “Look, here’s burial sites all over the place. These are all white farmers that are being burned.”

Trump had prepared multiple sources of evidence. Beyond the videos of Malema, beyond the footage of the burial site with crosses, he had also collected recent news articles documenting specific farm murders, violent attacks, and the general pattern of white South African displacement.

”His Family Was Wiped Out”

Trump described specific cases.

“You ought to be ashamed of yourself,” Trump told Alexander, though the statement was presumably directed at his general media criticism. “You know, you are so bad. You’re such a bad reporter.”

He continued: “This is one after another. His family was wiped out.”

The “family was wiped out” reference pointed to specific cases where entire farm families had been murdered. These cases — where attackers killed not just the farmer but spouse, children, elderly relatives, and sometimes farm workers — represented the most horrifying end of the farm murder pattern. They suggested systematic destruction of specific families rather than opportunistic crimes gone wrong.

A reporter asked about Trump’s emotional response: “Why do you have such a reaction to those videos?”

Trump explained: “No, no. When you look at the videos, I mean, how does it get worse? And these are people that are officials and they’re saying that kill the white farmer and take their land. That’s what I’m talking about.”

He continued: “And I have other friends in South Africa, people that left, one in particular that says you can’t go there. He said they want to take your land and take your land and they kill you. It’s okay. And they say it’s okay to do.”

The Diplomatic Framing

Trump closed by returning to diplomatic engagement.

“We’re going to talk about it,” Trump said. “It’ll be great. But this is a tremendous look.”

He reframed the evidence: “This is a story of recent. These are all people that recently got killed. And I don’t know how it can get any worse.”

He drove the key point home: “These are all people. And you know, the men that you saw, the men that you saw, the people that you saw on that movie, these are officials. Those are people that were in office. They had one march. They had a dance in your parliament, whatever you may call it. That’s what I’m talking about.”

The emphasis on “these are officials” was crucial. Trump’s argument was not that some fringe extremists were advocating violence against white farmers. It was that actual elected officials, members of parliament, were chanting “Kill the Boer” and dancing while doing so. The violence was being endorsed from political offices, not just from the margins of civil society.

The “that’s what I’m talking about” framing tied the visual evidence to the policy argument. If officials were openly calling for killings, if people were actually being killed, if the government was not prosecuting the incitement or the killings — then the pattern justified extraordinary responses like the American Afrikaner refugee program.

Key Takeaways

• Retief Goosen: “Some of my dad’s buddy farmers got killed. Constant battle — they’re trying to burn farms down to chase you away.”
• Goosen family security: “Electric fences. Constant threat. Both have been attacked. My mom was attacked when she was 80.”
• Trump to NBC’s Peter Alexander: “You don’t have what it takes to be a reporter. You’re not smart enough.”
• Trump on NBC leadership: “Brian Roberts and the people that run NBC ought to be investigated. They are so terrible.”
• Trump showed recent headlines: “Death. Death. Death. White South Africans fleeing because of violence and racist laws.”