A racist video depicting former President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama as apes in a jungle was removed from President Donald Trump’s Truth Social account Friday.
Hours after White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called criticism of the post “fake outrage,” officials backtracked.
An official said: “A White House staffer erroneously made the post. It has been taken down.”
A source close to Trump told NOTUS the president “did not watch the video beforehand, a staffer reposted it.”
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The reversal came after Republicans began to speak out against the president’s post. The video Trump shared Thursday discussed unfounded allegations of voter fraud involving Dominion voting machines during the 2020 presidential election. In the final seconds of the video, the feed cuts to the clip of the Obamas’ smiling faces on apes in the jungle, as notes from “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” play.
“Praying it was fake because it’s the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House,” Republican Sen. Tim Scott posted on X. “The President should remove it.”
Sen. Susan Collins shared Scott’s post, writing: “Tim is right. This was appalling.”
Sen. Roger Wicker called it “totally unacceptable.”“The president should take it down and apologize,” he wrote on X.
The White House defended the president’s post Friday morning, connecting the clip to a popular video that circulated on X in October. That video depicts House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other prominent Democratic figures as animals, with Trump as a lion.
“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,” Leavitt said in a statement.
Privately, some Black Republicans expressed disbelief at the video and the initial defense by the White House. One outside ally of the president’s told NOTUS there are too few Black staffers at the White House who could help shape the response, and those who are there have been sidelined.
“The lack of diversity when it comes to messaging is a problem,” the Republican source said. “It makes it so much harder for the rest of us to help him.”
They faulted the White House’s consistent strategy of defending any action. “Sometimes an apology is necessary.”
The Obama Foundation did not respond to a request for comment Friday.
But a slew of Democrats took to social media to condemn the clip, the latest instance of Trump posting mocking and racist depictions of his political opponents using AI-generated content.
“Trump is a vile racist old man. The people in the @HouseGOP that don’t speak out on this, I’m going to assume you support this racism,” Rep. Herb Conaway wrote on X.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s press office called the video “disgusting behavior” and called on Republicans to denounce the video.
The White House communications team has shared its own fake images, including a digitally altered photo that portrayed Nekima Levy Armstrong, a Minnesota activist who protested against Immigration and Customs Enforcement during a church service, as crying during her arrest. Armstrong wore a serious expression in the original photo.
This article has been updated with news that the post was removed from the president’s Truth Social page and a comment from the White House.
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