President Donald Trump is being widely censured because of a video posted to his Truth Social account the night of Thursday, Feb. 5. The video included a clip depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes. Although White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt initially told media outlets in a statement to “please stop the fake outrage,” the video was later removed Friday morning.
Editor’s note: This story contains offensive imagery.
“How will MAGA Christians justify this one?” asked Justin Giboney, cofounder and president of the AND Campaign. “Has he gone too far yet?”
“Praying it was fake because it’s the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House,” said Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC). “The President should remove it.”
“Racist. Deranged. Humiliating to our country. The fact that we have decided to pretend…this is normal every day is a moral abomination. Have we any shame?” said Dr. Russell Moore, editor-at-large for Christianity Today. “And every day an entire generation is being told it is ‘Christian’ to support this. God have mercy on us.”
Desiring God founder John Piper reposted Moore’s comments in agreement with Moore. Kay Warren, who cofounded Saddleback Church with her husband Rick Warren, said, “I will not repost that vile [and] dehumanizing meme of the Obamas on my feed but it is abhorrent and the man who posted it is unfit for office.”
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Donald Trump’s Truth Social Post of Barack and Michelle Obama Sparks Outrage
The video shared to Trump’s Truth Social account Thursday night was just over a minute long and promoted false claims that the 2020 election was stolen. A clip of the Obamas as apes appeared near the very end of the video. Comparisons of Black people to monkeys have long been used as a racist trope. Notably, February is Black History Month.
The depiction of the Obamas is from an apparently AI-generated video originally shared in October by an X account called “Xerias,” whose profile picture is Pepe the Frog depicted as Trump. While Pepe the Frog originated as a benign meme, it was later adopted by some extremist and white nationalist communities, who altered it with racist and antisemitic imagery.
The caption of Xerias’ video says, “President Trump: King of the Jungle,” and opens showing the Obamas’ faces superimposed on the bodies of primates. The song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” plays as other other animals are shown, each with a different person’s face superimposed on their bodies. Most of the people are politicians.
Hillary Clinton is depicted as a warthog, while Gavin Newsom and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are portrayed as donkeys. Joe Biden is also a primate. Kamala Harris is a tortoise, and Whoopi Goldberg is a hippopotamus. Trump is the lion. Near the end of the video, all the animals bow to the lion as he walks through them.
As outrage spread in response to Trump’s post, Leavitt responded in a statement, saying, “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 and report on something today that actually matters to the American public.”
However, the video, which had been posted the same day Trump spoke at the National Prayer Breakfast, was taken down after Leavitt gave the statement.
President Donald Trump is being widely censured because of a video posted to his Truth Social account the night of Thursday, Feb. 5.Click to Post
