WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump sparked widespread criticism after sharing a social media video that depicted former president Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as apes, imagery long associated with racist efforts to dehumanise people of African descent.
Late on Thursday, Trump reposted a minute-long video that amplified his repeated and unfounded claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. The video included an apparently AI-generated segment showing dancing primates with the faces of the Obamas superimposed on them. The clip was accompanied by music from The Lion King.
Read More: Trump deletes ‘racist’ video post of Obamas as monkeys
The post drew swift condemnation from across the political spectrum, including from Republican Senator Tim Scott, a close Trump ally. “Praying it was fake because it’s the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House,” Scott wrote on X, calling on Trump to remove the post.
Let it haunt Trump and his racist followers that future Americans will embrace the Obamas as beloved figures while studying him as a stain on our history. https://t.co/zDMdFtESJ3
— Ben Rhodes (@brhodes) February 6, 2026
The White House dismissed the criticism, with spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt describing the reaction as “fake outrage.” She said the video was an internet meme portraying Trump as the “King of the Jungle” and Democrats as characters from The Lion King. A spokesperson for the Obamas declined to comment.
Historians and civil rights advocates have long noted that depicting people of African ancestry as monkeys has been a core element of white supremacist propaganda for centuries. Ben Rhodes, a former senior aide to Obama, said the video underscored Trump’s legacy, writing that future generations would remember the Obamas as “beloved figures” while viewing Trump as “a stain on our history.”
Read More: Trump faces backlash over racist Obama video
Trump has frequently been accused of promoting racist rhetoric. During his political career, he repeatedly pushed the false conspiracy theory that Obama was not born in the United States. He has also faced backlash for derogatory comments about Somali immigrants and for racially charged depictions of Black Democratic leaders.
Civil rights groups say such incidents reflect a pattern in which racist language and imagery have become increasingly normalized in US political discourse.