Washington (Rajeev Sharma): U.S. President Donald Trump sparked widespread condemnation on Friday after sharing a video on his Truth Social account that portrayed former president Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as monkeys, an act critics across party lines described as openly racist.
The video, which circulated widely online, prompted sharp reactions from Democrats and rare public criticism from within Trump’s own party. While opponents denounced the imagery as dehumanizing and offensive, the White House dismissed the backlash as exaggerated.
The roughly one-minute clip promotes conspiracy theories surrounding Trump’s false claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen. Near the end of the video, the Obamas briefly appear with their faces superimposed on the bodies of monkeys, accompanied by the song The Lion Sleeps Tonight.
The video also repeats debunked allegations that Dominion Voting Systems manipulated vote counts to deny Trump a second term and hand victory to Joe Biden, who previously served as Obama’s vice-president. By early Friday, the post had attracted thousands of likes on Truth Social.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt defended the post, saying it was taken from an online meme.
“This is a meme portraying President Trump as the ‘King of the Jungle’ and Democrats as characters from The Lion King,” Leavitt said in a statement. She rejected criticism of the post as “fake outrage” and urged media outlets to focus on issues she said mattered more to Americans.
The Obamas had not commented publicly as of Friday.
Democratic leaders, however, responded forcefully. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries described Trump as “vile, unhinged and malignant,” calling on Republicans to denounce what he labeled blatant bigotry.
“Every Republican must speak out against this disgusting behavior,” Jeffries wrote on X.
Jeffries, who is Black, also referenced a previous incident in which Trump shared a video depicting him in stereotypical attire during negotiations over a potential government shutdown, imagery Jeffries has previously described as racist.
One of the strongest rebukes came from Republican Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, the only Black Republican in the Senate. Scott said the video was “the most racist thing” he had seen from the White House and urged Trump to remove it.
“I’m praying it was fake,” Scott said, adding that the imagery crossed a clear line.
Obama, the first Black president in U.S. history, served from 2009 to 2017 and later campaigned for Vice President Kamala Harris during the 2024 election. Trump’s political rise was fueled in part by his promotion of the false “birther” conspiracy questioning Obama’s citizenship — a claim widely condemned as racist.
California Governor Gavin Newsom’s office condemned the post as “disgusting behavior,” while Ben Rhodes, a former senior adviser to Obama, said the video would further tarnish Trump’s legacy.
“Future generations will remember the Obamas as admired figures,” Rhodes wrote on X, adding that Trump would be remembered as “a stain on our history.”
Trump has frequently clashed with Obama, often expressing resentment over the former president’s popularity and his Nobel Peace Prize. Since beginning his second term, Trump has increasingly shared hyper-realistic, AI-generated content online — often glorifying himself while mocking critics.
Some of those posts, including another AI-generated video depicting fighter jets dumping waste on protesters, were reportedly created by the same online user who produced the video targeting the Obamas. In a previous instance, Trump shared an AI-generated clip showing Obama being arrested and jailed.
The controversy comes amid broader criticism of Trump’s efforts to dismantle diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. Supporters of such programs argue they are rooted in the civil rights movement and were created to address systemic discrimination faced by Black Americans following centuries of slavery and segregation.
