A social media post from President Donald Trump that briefly depicted former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as primates was removed Friday after broad condemnation from both Republicans and Democrats. The clip, posted on Trump’s Truth Social account, drew swift criticism as offensive and racist.
Trump said later Friday he would not apologize, telling reporters, “I didn’t make a mistake.” The White House said the post was uploaded in error by a staffer after the deletion, but many critics rejected that explanation and demanded accountability.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt initially dismissed the backlash as “fake outrage,” calling the material an “internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from the Lion King.” Media and fact-checkers noted the referenced film is set on the savannah and does not include great apes. The short clip was part of a string of overnight posts that also pushed the former president’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen, claims repeatedly rejected by courts and by his former attorney general.
The 62-second video largely repurposed footage from a conservative piece alleging vote-count tampering during the 2020 count. Near the end, frames from a separate meme video briefly superimposed the Obamas’ faces onto jungle primates. That meme also portrays Mr. Trump as a triumphant “King of the Jungle” and other Democratic leaders as animals.
The episode intensified scrutiny over who controls the president’s social accounts and how posts are vetted. The White House did not immediately explain its approval process or how the public can distinguish a post authored by the president from one made by staff.
Reaction crossed party lines. Some Republicans, including Sen. Tim Scott, urged removal and expressed dismay; Sen. Roger Wicker called the post “totally unacceptable” and said the president should apologize. Prominent Trump ally Pastor Mark Burns said he spoke with the president and urged the firing of the staffer and a public condemnation.
Many Democrats and civil rights leaders rejected the staffer-defense and framed the incident as part of a broader pattern. Rep. Yvette Clarke, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, blamed a “toxic and racist climate within the White House.” NAACP President Derrick Johnson called the video “utterly despicable” and suggested it was a diversion from other issues.
The imagery revived a painful history of dehumanizing Black people by comparing them to animals — a racist trope that has persisted for centuries and was invoked in previous attacks on Obama, including the birther conspiracy theory that Mr. Trump promoted for years. Critics also pointed to other examples of Trump’s past incendiary language, including derogatory remarks about immigrants and some nations, as evidence of a pattern of racially charged rhetoric.
An Obama spokeswoman said the former president had no immediate response. By midday Friday the post had been deleted; the incident left unanswered questions about communications oversight, the role of staff in presidential messaging, and whether the president himself authored the content.
