U.S. President Trump shared a discriminatory video depicting former President Obama and his wife as monkeys, triggering strong bipartisan condemnation across the American political sphere, and, in a rare move, deleted the post on the 6th.
According to Central News Agency reports, the video was posted late on the 5th on Trump’s “Truth Social” account. The White House initially dismissed outside criticism as “fake outrage,” but later changed its stance, attributing the post to a staff error.
Democrats condemned Trump’s action against America’s first African American president and first lady as “despicable”; Republican Senator Wicker said the post was “completely unacceptable, the president should delete it and apologize.”
The minute-long video advances conspiracy theories about Trump’s 2020 election loss to Biden. Near the end of the video, the faces of the Obamas are superimposed onto monkey bodies for about one second, with the song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” playing in the background.
White House press secretary Levitt initially downplayed the controversy, saying the images were “from an internet meme video, which portrays President Trump as king of the jungle, and Democrats as characters from ‘The Lion King.’”
In a statement to Agence France-Presse, she said: “Please stop this fake outrage, and go report on things that truly matter to the American public.”
However, about 12 hours after the post appeared, the Trump administration—rarely willing to admit mistakes—backed down. White House officials told AFP: “A White House staff member posted the video by mistake, and it has now been deleted.”
Last year, Trump also posted an AI-generated video showing Obama being arrested in the Oval Office and standing behind bars in an orange prison jumpsuit.