President Donald Trump shared a video portraying the Obamas as apes, triggering swift condemnation and claims of blatant racism — including from several Republican lawmakers.
The video, shared on Truth Social last night, showed Barack and Michelle Obama’s faces superimposed onto apes in a jungle, swaying side to side and smiling as the song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” played in the background. The clip was overlaid by a watermark from X user @XERIAS_X, a Trump-supporting meme account with 46,000 followers.
On Friday morning, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed the clip as harmless. In a statement to The Independent, she said, “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,” she added.
But as criticism began to grow, the White House appeared to shift its stance. An official later told The Independent that a staff member — not Trump himself — had “erroneously made the post.” The video has since been removed from his Truth Social account.
'The most racist thing thing I’ve seen out of this White House’
The clip, which was up for 12 hours before being pulled from the president’s social media feed, was met with disgust by numerous politicians, television hosts and other high-profile figures.
Senator Tim Scott, a South Carolina Republican and close ally of Trump’s, was one of a number of GOP officials to accuse the president of crossing the line.
“Praying it was fake because it’s the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House,” Scott wrote on X. “The President should remove it.”
Rep. Mike Lawler, a New York Republican — whose district voted for former Vice President Kamala Harris in 2024 — also slammed the president.
“The President’s post is wrong and incredibly offensive — whether intentional or a mistake — and should be deleted immediately with an apology offered,” he wrote on social media.
GOP criticism has grown over the course of the day with additional denunciations pouring in from high-ranking officials.
In a post on X, Senator Roger Wicker, a Mississippi Republican, called the video “totally unacceptable” and requested that the president apologize. Meanwhile, Senator Pete Ricketts, a Nebraska Republican, wrote: “Even if this was a Lion King meme, a reasonable person sees the racist context to this.”
“I do not feel the need to respond to every inflammatory statement made by the White House,” Rep. Mike Turner, an Ohio Republican, wrote on X on Friday afternoon. “However, the release of racist images of former President Barack and First Lady Michelle Obama is offensive, heart breaking, and unacceptable. President Trump should apologize.”
Senator Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, echoed Scott’s comments, stating that the video “was appalling.”
Senator John Curtis of Utah also denounced the post, calling it “blatantly racist and inexcusable” and adding that "it should never have been posted or left published for so long."
As the public condemnations mounted, the White House was “besieged” with private calls from Republicans, who begged for the video to be deleted, a source with knowledge of the matter told Axios.
The most scathing remarks, though, came from Democrats — some of whom said they were not at all surprised by the president’s post.
House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries put it more bluntly: “F*** Donald Trump.”
“F*** Donald Trump and his vile, racist and malignant behavior,” he said in a video on Instagram. “This guy is an unhinged bottom feeder.”
“Donald Trump had the racist, bigoted audacity to post an AI-generated video depicting former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as apes,” Rep. Jasmine Crockett, a Texas Democrat, wrote on X. “While his behavior is not shocking, it is certainly disgusting and disturbing.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer described the video as “Racist, “Vile” and “Abhorrent.”
“He should be ashamed of himself, if he were capable of shame,” former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said in a statement. “Taking it down is not enough. The White House must apologize for this beyond disgusting behavior.”
A number of Democrats questioned whether their Republican colleagues would have the “moral courage” to condemn the post. While many GOP officials did indeed call out the president, at least one sidestepped questions about it.
When asked about the clip on CNN, Rep. Mike Haridopolos, a Florida Republican, said he had not watched it.
"Well, I've not seen that video to you, just showed it to me,” he said. When pressed on the matter, he said: "Well, I'll take a look at it right after our show…You kind of threw it at me right here.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune have not issued statements about the president’s post.
On Friday morning, MS NOW host Joe Scarborough criticized GOP officials for failing to denounce the video en masse. “All you're doing is making yourself look pathetic – Republicans – for not standing up to this open racism and bigotry,” he said. CNN anchor Jake Tapper also derided the post as “vile & racist.”
‘Staffer should be fired immediately’
Throughout the day on Friday, several prominent individuals — including some Trump allies — have called for the staffer who posted the video to be terminated.
Pastor Mark Burns, a televangelist and early supporter of Trump’s, said that he spoke with the president about the incident.
“I just spoke directly with President Trump regarding the offensive Obama ape video that circulated online,” he wrote on X. “The President assured me clearly and unequivocally that he did not post it.”
“My recommendation to the President was direct and firm,” Burns, a member of the groups Pastors for Trump, added. “That staffer should be fired immediately, and the President should publicly condemn this action.”
David Brody, a commentator for the Christian Broadcasting Network, who is a vocal supporter of the president, echoed this sentiment.
“FIRE THIS STAFFER!!!!!!! There is NO PLACE for this UGLY UGLY RACIST video,” he wrote in a post on social media.
Meanwhile, Rep. Jamie Raskin, a Maryland Democrat, demanded that not only the staffer be dismissed, but also everyone who had a hand in posting the video.
“Everyone in the White House involved in any way with that vile, sickening racist Trump post must be fired immediately,” Raskin wrote on X on Friday afternoon. “Everyone in the communications department, everyone in the press office, every deputy chief of staff, everyone involved up and down the line. Not one more tax dollar for this filth.”
Trump Responds
During a press gaggle on Friday night on board Air Force One, reporters asked Trump about the post. He insisted that he was the "least racist president you've had in a long time," and placed the responsibility for the post on his staff.
"I looked at it. I saw it, and I just looked at the first part. It was about voter fraud," Trump said. "I guess during the end of it, there was some kind of a people don't like, I wouldn't like it either, but I didn't see it. I just I looked at the first part, and it was really about voter fraud in the machines, how crooked it is, how disgusting it is."
He said that after someone on his staff watched the entire video, it was taken down. When a reporter asked him about calls from other Republicans to apologize for the video, Trump refused to take responsibility.
"No, I didn't make a mistake. I mean, if I look at a lot of thousands of things, I looked at the beginning of it. It was fine," Trump said.
Trump was later asked directly if he condemns the racist parts of the video, to which Trump replied: "Of course I do."
When asked if he had any message for the Americans who were offended by the video, Trump said “I really have no message,” before insisting that the U.S. is the “hottest country anywhere in the world” right now.
Who runs Trump’s social media accounts?
Although the White House has an extensive digital communications team that manages the administration's official social media accounts on X and other platforms, access to Trump's own Truth Social account is limited to the president himself plus a tight circle of close aides.
Trump has long been known to do much of his own posting dating back to his early years on Twitter, when he would opine on just about any subject and wasn't shy about mixing it up with rank-and-file platform users.
During his early years as a candidate and his first term as president, much of his online activity was managed by Daniel Scavino, a longtime confidant of the president who has worked for him in one capacity or another since he was a teenage golf caddy at Trump's Bedminster, New Jersey club.
Scavino, who returned to the White House with Trump last year with the rank of Assistant to the President and Deputy White House Chief of Staff, is understood to still be one of those few aides trusted with access to Trump's personal social media megaphone.
But with the 50-year-old taking on a broader range of responsibilities in Trump's second term — including running the White House Personnel Office, The Independent understands that the task of managing the president's Truth Social output on a day-to-day basis often rests on the shoulders of Natalie Harp, an ex-One America News Network personality who serves as a personal assistant to Trump and works just outside the Oval Office.
The Independent further understands that Harp is often the person to whom Trump dictates the text of Truth Social posts — when he is not posting himself. The scope of her involvement in the post is unknown, however, and she has not been accused of making it. Harp did not respond to an emailed enquiry from The Independent.
A former White House and campaign staffer from Trump's first term told The Independent that the president's late-night posting-and-reposting sprees were often his own doing.
Trump has a long history of attacking the Obamas, often using incendiary rhetoric, which has drawn accusations of racism.
Prior to his entry into politics, Trump repeatedly promoted the unsubstantiated claim that Barack Obama was born in Kenya, demanding he show the public his birth certificate. In 2011, Obama released his long-form birth certificate proving he’d been born in Hawaii. During a news conference, he decried Trump as a “carnival barker.”
Trump finally acknowledged that the former Democratic president was born in the United States shortly before the 2016 election.
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