South African president alludes to Trump’s threat in speech to the nation: ’We will not be bullied’

South African President Ramaphosa stands up to Trump's threats, defends land expropriation law in annual speech.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa appeared to respond to threats from U.S. counterpart Donald Trump by saying in his annual speech to the nation Thursday that his country would “not be bullied."

The comment by Mr. Ramaphosa was seen as a reaction to Trump's pledge to cut all funding to South Africa over a new land expropriation law — although Mr. Ramaphosa did not mention Mr. Trump by name.

“We are witnessing the rise of nationalism and protectionism, the pursuit of narrow interests and the decline of common cause,” Ramaphosa said at Parliament in Cape Town. "This is the world that we, as a developing economy, must now navigate.

"But we are not daunted. We will not be deterred. We are a resilient people. We will not be bullied. We will stand together as a united nation and we will speak with one voice in defense of our national interests, our sovereignty and our constitutional democracy."

That part of the speech was met with applause and cheers by members of Parliament and others attending South Africa's version of the State of the Union.

Mr. Ramaphosa and his government have spent much of the week defending their country's reputation and its legal processes after Mr. Trump posted on Sunday on his Truth Social platform that he would stop all U.S. funding to South Africa because it was “confiscating land, and treating certain classes of people VERY BADLY,” without saying who. Trump wrote that the country's leadership was engaged in a “massive Human Rights VIOLATION” that was being ignored by the media.

He said the South African government was "doing some terrible things, horrible things,” again without providing specifics.