White House defends, then deletes, racist Trump post depicting Obamas as apes

By Trevor Hunnicutt

WASHINGTON, Feb 6 (Reuters) – A video posted on President Donald Trump’s social media account that depicted Democratic former President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama as apes was removed on Friday, after criticism — including from some Republicans — that the imagery evoked racist tropes historically used to dehumanize people of African descent. 

The White House first defended the post, then deleted it about 12 hours after it appeared.

“A White House staffer erroneously made the post,” a White House official said. “It has been taken down.”

A Trump adviser said the president had not seen the video before it was posted late on Thursday and ordered it taken down once he had.

Both officials declined to be named. The White House did not respond to a question about the staffer’s identity.

White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt hours earlier had defended the post, describing the wave of negative reactions as “fake outrage.”

The minute-long video shared on Trump’s Truth Social network amplified false claims that his 2020 election defeat was the result of fraud. Spliced into the video near its end was a brief, and apparently AI-generated, clip of dancing primates superimposed with the Obamas’ heads. 

Trump has a history of sharing racist rhetoric and long promoted the false conspiracy theory that Obama, the president from 2009 to 2017, was not born in the United States. Speaking at a prayer breakfast on Thursday, Trump said Obama “was very bad” and a “terrible divider of our country.”

A RARE REBUKE FROM REPUBLICANS

The post drew bipartisan criticism, including from Republican Senator Tim Scott, a close Trump ally who is Black. 

“Praying it was fake because it’s the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House,” Scott said on X. “The President should remove it.”

Other lawmakers in Trump’s Republican Party called on him to apologize and delete the post. Some Republican lawmakers also privately reached out to the White House about the video, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Prior to the post being deleted, Leavitt said it was “from an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from the Lion King.” Trump’s clip included a song from that Disney musical.

A spokesperson for the Obamas declined to comment.

White supremacists have for centuries depicted people of African ancestry as monkeys as part of campaigns to dehumanize and dominate Black populations.

“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,” said Ben Rhodes, a former Obama aide, on X.

TRUMP’S USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA

Trump, serving his second term in office, has long used social media to unveil policy, weigh in on issues and share fan-generated content to his nearly 12 million followers on Truth Social, a platform owned by his Trump Media & Technology Group.

Thursday’s post raised questions about the security protocols around Trump’s social media communications, which can move markets and provoke adversaries. Trump has criticized his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden, for not tightly controlling the presidential memoranda distributed under his name and signed by “auto-pen.”

In December, Trump described Somalis as “garbage” who should be thrown out of the country. He has referred to that and other developing nations as “shithole countries.” He was also criticized last year for depicting House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who is Black, with a superimposed handlebar mustache and a sombrero.

Civil rights advocates have said Trump’s rhetoric has become increasingly bold, normalized and politically permissible. 

“Donald Trump’s video is blatantly racist, disgusting, and utterly despicable,” said Derrick Johnson, national president of the NAACP, a civil rights group, in an emailed statement. “Voters are watching and will remember this at the ballot box.”

(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt; Additional reporting by Steve Holland, Bo Erickson and Kat Stafford; Editing by Colleen Jenkins and Daniel Wallis)