Did donald trump post a video where the obamas are apes
Executive summary
Yes — President Donald Trump posted a Truth Social video that includes a brief, digitally altered clip showing former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama portrayed as apes; the image appears for roughly one to two seconds near the end of a roughly one‑minute video that otherwise pushes false claims about 2020 voting machines [1] [2] [3].
1. What exactly was posted and how long the imagery ran
The Truth Social post shared late at night contained a roughly 62‑second clip about alleged voting‑machine anomalies, and in its final moments a two‑second/one‑second segment flashes showing the Obamas’ faces superimposed on ape bodies dancing in a jungle to “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” a frame that many outlets describe as an apparent AI/manipulated image [4] [3] [5].
2. Origin and technical provenance cited by reporting
News organizations trace the short Obama sequence to a longer “meme” video that circulated on right‑wing social accounts in October 2025 — the White House pointed reporters to that earlier post and described the clip as part of an internet meme portraying Trump as a lion and Democrats as animal characters, and several outlets note a watermark on the clip linking back to a pro‑Trump X account [6] [1] [3].
3. Political and public reaction to the post
The post drew bipartisan condemnation from many Democrats and some Republicans, including Senator Tim Scott, and prompted descriptions such as “racist,” “disgusting” and calls for deletion or apology from Senate Democrats and governors; multiple outlets reported swift backlash across social and political circles [4] [7] [5].
4. White House defense and competing narratives
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt defended the post as an internet meme and urged critics to “stop the fake outrage,” calling the clip part of a Lion King–styled montage rather than a targeted racial attack; that defense is widely reported alongside journalists’ and civil‑rights observers’ assessments that comparing Black people to apes is a long‑standing racist trope, a point raised by numerous outlets covering the story [4] [8] [9].
5. Context: pattern, prior incidents and editorial framing
Coverage places this episode in a recent pattern of digitally manipulated content shared from Trump’s accounts — outlets note prior instances of AI or doctored material involving Barack Obama shared in 2025 — and most reports tie the ape imagery to both the campaign’s continued 2020 election messaging and a broader conversation about AI‑generated political material [2] [6] [10].
6. Bottom line and limits of available reporting
Reporting confirms that the president’s verified Truth Social account posted the video containing the brief ape imagery of the Obamas and that the clip appears AI‑manipulated and sourced from a meme posted months earlier; coverage documents the outrage and the White House defense, but the sources do not provide incontrovertible evidence about the president’s intent in sharing the clip, so intent cannot be independently established from the available reporting [1] [6] [8].