Did Trump post about the Obama as apes?
Executive summary
Yes — President Donald Trump’s Truth Social account reposted a video that briefly depicted former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as apes; the clip was publicly visible for roughly 12 hours before being removed amid bipartisan outrage and explanations from the White House that a staffer had “erroneously” made the post [1] [2] [3].
1. The post: what appeared and where it showed up
Late on a Thursday night, Trump’s Truth Social account shared a roughly 62‑second video about 2020 election conspiracy claims that included, near the end, a one‑to‑two‑second AI‑style clip superimposing the Obamas’ faces onto dancing primates set to “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” a segment pulled from a longer meme video circulated online [4] [2] [3].
2. Duration, origin and technical attribution
Multiple outlets report the clip was taken from an earlier post by a conservative meme creator (X user @XERIAS_X) and appeared AI‑generated; it remained on Trump’s feed for about 12 hours after being posted around 11:44 p.m. ET before deletion [1] [2] [5].
3. Reaction: bipartisan condemnation and White House response
The post drew immediate condemnation across the political spectrum — including from Republican Senator Tim Scott, who called it “the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House” — while White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt initially dismissed the backlash as “fake outrage” and later the White House said a staffer had erroneously made the post as it was taken down [6] [7] [8] [2].
4. Historical context and why outlets labeled it racist
News organizations and historians contextualized the imagery as invoking a long‑standing racist trope that dehumanizes Black people by comparing them to apes — a metaphor historically used to justify slavery, lynching and segregation — which is why the clip’s targets (the nation’s first Black president and first lady) triggered particularly strong rebukes [1] [9] [5].
5. Competing narratives and limits of the public record
There are two competing narratives in the record: outlets report the post was shared by Trump’s account and then deleted [9] [3], while the White House offered the staff‑error explanation and Leavitt framed criticism as manufactured outrage [8] [7]. Public reporting so far documents the repost and removal and attributes the source to an external meme account, but does not independently verify internal White House intent or who exactly authorized the repost; that level of confirmation is not present in the collected reporting [2] [4].
6. Political implications and possible motives
Reporters and critics characterize the episode as part of a pattern: Trump has repeatedly targeted Barack Obama and amplified conspiracy theories in the past, and analysts say amplifying racially charged memes can be politically effective for stoking base enthusiasm even as it provokes broader condemnation; defenders within the administration characterized the clip as part of a satirical montage of Democrats rather than a specifically racial attack [9] [7] [4].
7. Bottom line
The factual record in mainstream reporting is clear that Trump’s social account made the clip visible to the public depicting the Obamas as apes, that it was removed after about 12 hours, and that the White House offered both a minimization and an “erroneous staffer” explanation; reporting does not yet provide independent proof about who within the White House executed the repost or whether it reflected the president’s intent beyond amplification of a circulating meme [1] [2] [7].