Trump Pulls Racist Video Portraying Obamas As Apes After 12+ Hours On Truth Social
After being widely condemned by leaders from both parties for posting a racist social media video portraying former President Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as apes, President Trump deleted the video Friday afternoon — more than 12 hours after it was first posted.
The video pushes a conspiracy theory about voting machines during the 2020 election, and ends with a two-second clip of the Obamas' faces on the bodies of apes.
BIGGER PICTURE: The post relies on a centuries-old racist trope depicting Black people as monkeys or apes. Depictions of Black people as apes were used to justify slavery, lynching, and the creation of Jim Crow laws.
The White House initially called criticism of the post “fake outrage” and criticized the media for asking about it, but later on Friday pivoted to blaming a staffer for posting the video. (The Trump press office reflexively defends the president, regardless of the controversy).
The original statement from White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt: “This is from an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from the Lion King. Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public.”
WHAT WE KNOW
The Obama clip comes from a video, originally created by a MAGA meme account, that depicted prominent Democrats as animals and Trump as a lion. The animals then bow to Trump. Trump has leaned into re-sharing AI memes from conservative content creators since retaking the White House.
REACTIONS: Democrats and a number of Trump supporters condemned the post as racist and called on Trump to delete it and apologize.
Longtime Trump ally, Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), who is Black, called it “the most racist thing I've seen out of this White House.” He was one of the few top Republicans to condemn the video Friday morning, likely prompting the White House to delete the post.
REWIND: It’s not the first time Trump has been accused of racism against people of color. He was the driving force behind the Obama “birther” movement, falsely claiming Obama was born in Kenya. In 2018, he called several nations with majority non-White populations “shithole countries.” During the 2024 campaign, he said undocumented migrants were “poisoning the blood of our country.”
DIGGING DEEPER: If it’s true that a staffer has access to Trump’s social media and can post throughout the middle of the night, that raises serious alarms. His account is where he announces major policy decisions, and those posts can have immediate, real-world consequences for geopolitics and financial markets.