President Trump drew sharp condemnation after sharing a racist video clip that portrayed former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as apes, prompting outrage and renewed scrutiny of Mr. Trump’s long record of promoting offensive stereotypes about Black Americans and other groups.
The short clip appeared near the end of a 62-second video that circulated conspiracy theories about supposed irregularities in the 2020 presidential election. The segment was set to the song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” and was included as part of a montage posted by Mr. Trump during a late-night burst of activity on social media Thursday.
Depicting the Obamas as apes echoes a deeply racist trope that has long been used to dehumanize Black people and to rationalize violence, including lynchings and other atrocities. A spokeswoman for Mr. Obama declined to comment on the video.
The post fits into a broader pattern of inflammatory rhetoric by Mr. Trump targeting people of color, women, and immigrants. During his second administration, official government social media accounts, including those of the White House, the Labor Department, and the Department of Homeland Security, have also shared images and slogans that critics say resemble white supremacist messaging.
Asked about the video, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed the criticism, calling it “fake outrage.”
“This is from an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from the Lion King,” she said. “Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public.”
Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, the only Black Republican in the Senate, publicly objected to the post, writing on X that he hoped it was fake “because it’s the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House. The President should remove it.”
The clip appears to have originated from a video shared on X in October by a user who captioned it “President Trump: King of the Jungle,” accompanied by a lion emoji.
That earlier video portrayed several prominent Democrats — including former U.S. secretary of state Hillary Clinton, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Mayor Zohran Mamdani of New York, former President Joseph R. Biden Jr., and former vice president Kamala Harris — as various animals, while Mr. Trump was depicted as a lion. In that version as well, the Obamas were shown as apes, and the video concluded with the animals bowing before Mr. Trump.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s press office issued a statement condemning the post, calling it “disgusting behavior by the President.” Mr. Newsom added, “Every single Republican must denounce this. Now.”
Since returning to office, Mr. Trump and members of his administration have repeatedly mocked Mr. Obama or promoted false claims about him, keeping the former president a frequent target of political attacks.
{Matzav.com}