Trump deletes video portraying Obamas as monkeys after backlash

By Obinna Uballa

United States President Donald Trump has removed a post from his Truth Social account after widespread condemnation over a video that briefly depicted former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama with their faces superimposed on monkeys.

The New Diplomat had reported that the one-minute video, shared late Thursday night, recycled false claims that Dominion Voting Systems helped “steal” the 2020 presidential election from Trump. Near the end of the clip, the Obamas appeared for about a second with their faces edited onto monkeys’ bodies as the song The Lion Sleeps Tonight played in the background.

The imagery sparked outrage across the political spectrum on Friday, with Democrats describing it as racist and unbecoming of a sitting president, while some Republican lawmakers also publicly criticised the post.

Initially, the White House dismissed the backlash. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt described the clip as part of an “internet meme video” portraying Trump as “King of the Jungle” and Democrats as characters from The Lion King, urging the public to “stop the fake outrage.”

However, nearly 12 hours after the post appeared online, a White House official who spoke to AFP, a global news agency, said that it had been removed, saying a staff member had “erroneously” shared it.

There was no immediate reaction from the Obamas.

Democratic leaders were swift in their response. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries described Trump as “vile, unhinged and malignant,” urging Republicans to denounce what he called “disgusting bigotry.”

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California Governor Gavin Newsom’s office also reacted sharply on X, calling the post “disgusting behaviour by the President” and demanding condemnation from Republican leaders.

Ben Rhodes, a former national security adviser to Obama, wrote that future generations would “embrace the Obamas as beloved figures while studying [Trump] as a stain on our history.”

Notably, criticism also came from within Trump’s party. Senator Tim Scott, the only Black Republican in the Senate, described the video as “the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House” and urged Trump to take it down. Senator Roger Wicker called the post “totally unacceptable” and said the president should apologise.

The incident revived debate over Trump’s repeated use of provocative and AI-generated visuals on social media to attack critics and energise supporters. In recent years, Trump has shared manipulated images and videos targeting political opponents, including AI-generated clips showing Obama being arrested and Jeffries depicted in racially stereotyped attire.

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Trump has long faced criticism over racial issues, dating back to his promotion of the false “birther” conspiracy theory questioning Obama’s citizenship during his first term in office.

The controversy also comes amid renewed criticism of the administration’s rollback of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programmes across federal institutions, including the military.

Civil rights advocates argue that such policies were born out of the 1960s struggle against racial discrimination and remain essential to addressing systemic inequality.