South Africa wanted to talk about trade. Then Trump turned off the lights.

For President Cyril Ramaphosa from South Africa, the meeting in the Oval Office should be a chance to hit the reset button.

He did everything to do the mood right. He brought President Trump to giggling with a joke over golf. He offered him a book. And he held the compliments flow and thanked Mr. Trump for the provision of respiratory protection masks during the Covid 19 pandemic.

“My heart really touched,” said Mr. Ramaphosa.

In the establishment of Mr. Ramaphosas in the White House on Wednesday, South African officials emphasized that they would not focus on Mr. Trump's recent demands of the white genocide, which are widely recognized as wrong. Instead, they talked about tariffs, the valuable minerals in South Africa and the strengthening of business relationships between the two countries.

But Mr. Ramaphosa was injured by the meeting, and there was little to show that it goes beyond more uncertainty. His efforts to avoid the discussion of the so-called genocide and the recent arrival of 59 white South Africans by the designation of refugees by the Trump management seemed spectacular.

Now South Africa is staring at strong tariffs, no promise of a new trade agreement and a missed opportunity to set the record on Mr. Trump's persistent accusations of racism against white, which are largely economically better than the black majority in South Africa.

“Today, if it does not lead to sensible reconciliation, only more pressure on poor South Africans who are fighting,” said Patrick Gaspard, the former ambassador of the United States in South Africa.