Did Trump post the Obamas as monkeys?
Executive summary
Donald Trump posted a Truth Social video that included a brief clip depicting Barack and Michelle Obama with their faces superimposed on apes, then deleted the post after widespread bipartisan condemnation; the White House first defended the post as an “internet meme” and later said a staffer had erroneously made the post [1][2][3]. Coverage across major outlets describes the imagery as a racist trope with historical use to dehumanize Black people, and Republicans as well as Democrats publicly condemned the clip [4][5][2].
1. What was posted and where: a Truth Social repost of an online meme
The content in question was a roughly 62-second video shared on President Trump’s Truth Social account that pushed false claims about the 2020 election and, near its end, for about one or two seconds showed the Obamas’ faces superimposed on the bodies of apes while “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” played — a clip traced to an October post by a pro‑Trump meme account on X (formerly Twitter) with an X watermark that appears in the clip [6][1][7].
2. Immediate reaction: removal, denials and party condemnation
The post remained on Truth Social for roughly 12 hours before being deleted amid a rare chorus of criticism that included Democrats and several Republicans who called the imagery racist and unacceptable; the White House initially urged critics to “stop the fake outrage” but removed the video and later attributed the share to a staffer error, according to multiple outlets [6][2][3].
3. Why many outlets call it racist: historical context and expert framing
News organizations and commentators framed the montage as invoking a centuries‑old racist trope that likens Black people to apes — a dehumanizing image historically used to justify violence and discrimination — and described the clip as “blatantly racist” and “overtly racist” in their reporting [4][6][8].
4. Defenses and competing narratives advanced by the White House
The White House’s immediate defense characterized the clip as part of a broader internet meme depicting Democrats as animals and urged journalists to focus on other issues, and later a White House official said the post was made “erroneously” by a staffer, a claim relayed by news outlets but reported with attribution to anonymous officials rather than direct on‑the‑record admission from the president [2][1][3].
5. Political fallout and why this mattered beyond a single post
The incident provoked unusually swift intraparty discomfort — conservative allies and GOP senators urged removal and apology — and commentators flagged it as part of a pattern in which AI‑generated and provocative visuals have been used by the president and his supporters to belittle critics and energize a base, making the episode politically consequential beyond a single social‑media misstep [4][9][8].
6. What reporting cannot establish from available sources
The public record in these reports documents the reposting, deletion, and the White House claim that a staffer mistakenly posted the clip, but available reporting does not provide definitive evidence about whether the president personally reviewed or approved the post before it went live or the internal decision‑making that led to its removal beyond anonymous sourcing [2][4][3].