President Donald Trump went on a wild social media posting spree late Thursday night and into Friday morning, one that included a video depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes, set to “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.”
The clip of the Obamas, which appears to be AI-generated, comes near the end of a 62-second video about election conspiracy theories. Trump posted the video just before midnight on Thursday, and as of Friday morning it is still up on his Truth Social page.
The White House defended the post. “This is from an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from The Lion King,” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote in a statement. “Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public.”
The video is the latest entry in the right’s long history of racism directed at the Obamas. Trump ahead of the 2012 presidential election famously pushed the “birther” conspiracy theory that Barack Obama was actually born in Africa and not a U.S. citizen. “An ‘extremely credible source’ has called my office and told me that @BarackObama’s birth certificate is a fraud,” he tweeted that year. Obama had already released his long-form birth certificate to throw cold water on the conspiracy theory a year prior.
Democrats were quick to condemn the post depicting the Obamas as apes on Friday.
“Disgusting behavior by the President,” California Governor Gavin Newsom’s press office wrote shortly after Trump posted the clip. “Every single Republican must denounce this. Now.”
“Trump is a vile racist old man. The people in the @HouseGOP that don’t speak out on this, I’m going to assume you support this racism,” wrote Rep. Herb Conaway (D-N.J.), who is Black.
“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,” Ben Rhodes, a national security adviser under Obama, posted on X.
“Every Republican will pretend they didn’t see it, no reporter should let them get away with it,” wrote Dan Pfeiffer, another former Obama adviser.
Some on the right seemed to recognize that Trump posting the video was not a good look. “FAKE NEWS ALERT! Trump Didn’t post this monkey video of the obamas. Lying Democrats. It’s not on his page. Fake screenshot,” wrote MAGA influencer Terrence K. Williams to his 2.4 million X followers. Williams was quickly corrected by fact checkers and a community note was soon attached to his post, which has not been deleted as of Friday morning.
The video featuring the Obamas was part of a bizarre string of posts from the president, many of which promoted unfounded election conspiracy theories. Trump also shared a 14-second video of a dog sliding itself into a kitchen at the sound of an aerosol whipped cream can, and a 15-second video of Bruce Lee set to a dramatic rendition of the “Seven Nation Army” melody.
