On Thursday night, Donald Trump shared a racist video clip on his Truth Social account depicting former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as apes in the jungle.
The minute-long video promoting conspiracy theories about the tabulation of the 2020 presidential election results showed the Obamas’ faces superimposed onto the bodies of apes as “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” played in the background.
It goes without saying that comparing Black people to apes is a racist trope that has been used for centuries to dehumanize people with African heritage.
Did I mention this is Black History Month?
Trump posts a video portraying former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as apes
— Molly Ploofkins (@mollyploofkins.bsky.social) February 6, 2026 at 3:20 AM
From NBC News:
While the White House initially defended the video, it was met with swift backlash — including from Republicans, who said it was “unacceptable” and “racist” and asked Trump to take it down and apologize. It was removed shortly before noon on Friday.
“A White House staffer erroneously made the post. It has been taken down,” a White House official told NBC News.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt responded to NBC News’ request for comment Friday morning with a statement: “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.”
Trump’s repost drew strong criticism on social media from both sides of the aisle, including from several GOP lawmakers who rarely criticize the president publicly.
“A White House staffer erroneously made the post…?” Think about the work environment that would make a “staffer” think this was ok.
Trump has long criticized the former president going so far as to say Obama wasn’t really an American. There really is no bottom when it comes to Trump. Read more here.
Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC), the only Black member of the Senate, issued a statement on X saying, “Praying it was fake because it’s the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House. The President should remove it.”
Donald Trump just shared a video of Michelle & Barack Obama as APES. Over 70 million US citizens voted for this, and they knew what they were voting for.
— Liam Carson (@liamcarson.bsky.social) February 6, 2026 at 2:11 AM
Three-time Trump voter: I voted for Trump, but I really want to apologize. I’m looking at this awful picture of the Obamas. What an embarrassment to our country. All this man does is tell lies. He is not worthy of the presidency. He takes bribes blatantly, and now he’s being a… pic.twitter.com/MxW0ojbKy6
— FactPost (@factpostnews) February 6, 2026
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