Outcry Over Trump Account Video Insulting Obamas: White House Responds
The White House removed a controversial AI-generated video posted by Trump depicting Obama and Michelle as apes, sparking widespread accusations of racism and bipartisan condemnation.
The one-minute footage, posted by Trump on Thursday evening on his social network Truth Social, mainly revolves around alleged fraud during the lost presidential election of 2020.
Shortly before the end of the video, there is an artificial intelligence-generated image in which the heads of Barack and Michelle Obama are placed on the bodies of apes.
During this time, the song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” is heard, and Trump’s head appears placed on the body of a lion, similar to the Obamas’ heads on apes’ bodies (as JF reported).
Although the animated video also depicts Trump’s white predecessor, Joe Biden, as an ape, the mockery of the Obamas caused significant uproar and accusations of racism against Trump.
For example, former national security adviser and close Obama associate Ben Rhodes wrote on X: “I hope Trump and his racist supporters try to approach them, that in the future Americans will honor the Obamas as beloved figures while seeing him as a stain of anguish in our history,” he wrote on X.
Criticism from a Republican Senator as well
California Governor Gavin Newsom shared on X a post from his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, who wrote that the video is “deeply disturbing and blatantly racist.”
No head of state in the “free world” should appreciate or defend it, he said, adding: “If such things are publicly downplayed, one wonders what might be supported in secret.”
There was also intense criticism of the video from Republican circles. Thus, Senator Tim Scott from South Carolina—an African American himself—stated that the video is “the most racist thing” he has ever heard from the White House.
Trump himself expressed his opinion on Friday to reporters during a flight on the presidential airplane Air Force One about the matter. “I saw only the first part and not the whole video,” said the U.S. president.
His aides had also not watched the entire clip before the post. When asked if he condemns the alleged racist remarks in the video, Trump stressed: “Of course I do.”
