President Donald Trump refused to apologize after his social media account posted a video late Thursday night that showed a racist animation depicting former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as apes.
While speaking to reporters on Air Force One, the president said, “I guess during the end of it, there was some kind of picture people don’t like. I wouldn’t like it either, but I didn’t see it.” According to ABC News, he suggested he only watched the first part, which focused on false claims about the 2020 election.
When asked if he regretted sharing the content, President Trump said he didn’t make a mistake. “I look at a lot of, thousands of, things, and I looked at the beginning of it. It was fine,” he said. He explained that he saw the video first, but not the racist part, then gave it to “the people” to post on his account. However, he did say he condemns the racist parts of the video, stating, “Of course I do.”
This racist imagery has deep historical roots in dehumanization
The video was shared on the president’s social media account. Near the end, it showed the Obamas’ faces placed on the bodies of apes, set to the song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.” Depicting Black people as apes or monkeys has long been used by segregationists and slave traders to dehumanize people.
After immediate backlash, the video was removed from the president’s page by around noon on Friday. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt first tried to downplay the situation, calling the video an “internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from the Lion King.” She told people to “stop the fake outrage.” This isn’t the first time Trump has faced controversy over his treatment of reporters.
That story changed later when a White House official said a “staffer erroneously made the post.” Politicians from both parties quickly condemned the post. Senator Tim Scott, the only Black Republican in the Senate, posted on X that he was “Praying it was fake because it’s the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House.” He demanded that the president remove it. President Trump later spoke with Scott by phone and told him the video was posted by a staffer by mistake and would be taken down.
Senator Roger Wicker wrote that the content was “totally unacceptable” and that the president needed to take it down and apologize. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries wrote that the Obamas “are brilliant, compassionate and patriotic Americans,” and called President Trump “a vile, unhinged and malignant bottom feeder.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called the post “Racist. Vile. Abhorrent,” and demanded an immediate apology. Meanwhile, the president has been involved in his legal battle against a major bank. The Obamas have not commented on the incident, though they later posted on social media Friday night to wish Team USA good luck at the Winter Olympics.
Published: Feb 7, 2026 12:45 pm