Good afternoon. This is the Final NOTUS newsletter for February 6, 2026. You can get it in your inbox every day by signing up here — it’s free!
The Latest
Donald Trump posted a video depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt defended it as an internet meme and dismissed complaints as “fake outrage.” But then:
- Republican Sen. Tim Scott said the post was “the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House.” Republican Sen. Pete Ricketts said “a reasonable person sees the racist context to this.” Republican Sen. Roger Wicker said the post was “totally unacceptable” and called on the president to “take it down and apologize.”
- The president deleted the post but did not apologize. The White House blamed a staffer and claimed Trump didn’t see the post before it went up.
- Then: Republican condemnation floodgates opened. Sen. Dan Sullivan called the post “offensive” and said he was glad the White House took it down. Sen. John Curtis said it was “blatantly racist” and shouldn’t have been up as long as it was. Sen. Katie Britt said the post was “not who we are as a nation.” Trump’s “top pastor,” Mark Burns, said he talked with Trump and told him to fire whoever made the post.
- A Black Republican Trump ally put the blame on a lack of Black staffers at the White House — although perhaps you shouldn’t need a Black staffer to tell you that a post depicting the first Black president as an ape might be a problem. The ally also bemoaned Team Trump’s habit of reflexively doubling down: “Sometimes an apology is necessary.”
- Assignment desk: Would Trump’s allies in Congress have spoken up even a few months ago? Is this a sign that even Trump’s most loyal supporters in Washington have had enough? Or was this post — as opposed to this post, or this post, or this post, or this post — just a bridge too far?