Trump shares video of Obamas as apes in Truth Social post
President Donald Trump shared a video depicting the Obamas as apes in a series of late-night social media posts Thursday.
The clip appeared near the end of a minute-long video boasting falsehoods about the 2020 election. It was posted at 11:44 p.m. ET Thursday.
What does the video show?
What we know:
The video, shared on Trump’s Truth Social account, discussed conspiracy theories about the 2020 election. Near the end of the video, a short clip of the Obamas portrayed as apes is spliced in with "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" playing in the background. The video remained on Trump's account for much of Friday morning before it was removed.
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The short clip appears to be part of a longer, AI-generated video shared in October on X called "President Trump: King of the Jungle." The longer video shows other Democrats depicted as various animals, like former President Joe Biden and former Vice President Kamala Harris as zebras.
Trump was shown as a lion, and the video ended with the animals bowing down to him.
What we don't know:
Former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama have not yet responded publicly to Trump's post.
Why you should care:
The ape comparison is described by The New York Times as "one of the oldest and most profoundly racist slanders in American history."
"Historical racist images and books dehumanizing African Americans in the 19th and early 20th century relied heavily on the Negro-ape metaphor, which was used to stereotype Blacks as lazy, dim and aggressive," said Phillip Atiba Solomon, the lead author of a 2008 study about the connection between discrimination and comparing Black people to apes. "Such dehumanization and animal imagery have been used for centuries to justify violence against many oppressed groups."
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Obama, as a candidate and the country's first Black president, was sometimes featured as a primate on T-shirts and other merchandise.
Video sparks outrage
What they're saying:
California Gov. Gavin Newsom and other prominent Democrats were quick to decry the post. U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, a South Carolina Republican, called it "the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House."
"Praying it was fake," Scott wrote. "The President should remove it."
Another GOP senator, Pete Ricketts of Nebraska, also called for the post to be taken down.
"Even if this was a Lion King meme, a reasonable person sees the racist context to this," Ricketts posted. "The White House should do what anyone does when they make a mistake: remove this and apologize."
Republican Rep. Mike Lawler of New York called it "wrong and incredibly offensive."
"Disgusting behavior by the President," Newsom’s office wrote on X. "Every single Republican must denounce this. Now."
"Trump is a vile racist old man," Rep. Herb Conaway, D-N.J., said on X.
White House responds
The other side:
In a statement released Friday morning, the White House called widespread criticism of the video "fake outrage."
"This is from an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from the Lion King," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.
Later Friday, a White House official told NBC that "a White House staffer erroneously made the post" and "it has been taken down."
Even after it was deleted, Republicans continued to condemn the post.
"The post was blatantly racist and inexcusable," Sen. John Curtis, a Utah Republican, said on X. "It should never have been posted or left published for so long."
Trump's Obama attacks
The backstory:
Trump has a history of intense, personal criticism of the Obamas.
When Obama was in the White House, Trump advanced the false claims that the 44th president, who was born in Hawaii, was born in Kenya and was constitutionally ineligible to serve. Trump repeatedly demanded that Obama produce birth records and prove he was a "natural-born citizen" as required to become president.
Obama eventually released his Hawaii records. Trump finally acknowledged during his 2016 campaign, after having won the Republican nomination, that Obama was born in Hawaii.
The Source: This report includes information from President Trump’s Truth Social Account, politicians’ posts on X, The White House, The New York Times, Axios, Phillip Atiba Solomon and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The Associated Press contributed.