Video Portraying Obamas as Apes Deleted from Trump’s Truth Social
A video post on President Donald Trump’s Truth Social account featuring a clip showing former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama depicted as apes, which came from a larger AI video, has been removed.
A senior White House official told CNN that a staffer was responsible for the position.
“It was a White House staffer who posted this message in error. It has been removed,” the senior official said. said Alayna Treene, CNN White House correspondent.
The video posted to Trump’s account focused on the 2020 election and featured a two-second clip at the end of a larger, cartoon-style video showing the faces of the Obamas and those of former President Joe Biden on the bodies of cartoon monkeys. It includes other Democrats, such as former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA), depicted as various animals, and features Trump as a lion, with the animals bowing to him at the end.
The video was posted to Trump’s account on Thursday at 11:44 p.m. before being deleted on Friday, according to Axios. Establishment media called the post “racist” in their headlines.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt referenced the broader AI video from which the clip came in a statement released Friday morning.
“This is an Internet video meme depicting President Trump as the king of the jungle and Democrats as characters from The Lion King. Please stop this fake outrage and report today on something that actually matters to the American public,” Leavitt said, USA Today reported.
In an exclusive interview with Alex Marlow, editor-in-chief of Breitbart News, Leavitt said the controversy “is fake news.”
Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) strongly condemned the video posted on Trump’s account in a statement on X.
“I pray this is false because it is the most racist thing I have seen in the White House. The president should remove it,” he wrote.
