Obamas as monkeys
Executive summary
A one-minute video posted to President Donald Trump’s Truth Social account included a brief clip in which former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama were shown with their faces superimposed on ape bodies; the post was widely condemned as racist and later deleted amid bipartisan backlash [1][2]. The White House initially defended the post as part of an internet meme and Trump said he directed aides to post the clip while claiming he had not seen the offending frame; critics pointed to the long history of dehumanizing Black people via ape imagery to explain why the depiction was broadly denounced [3][1][4].
1. What happened: the post, the image and the takedown
Late on Feb. 5, 2026, the president’s social account shared a roughly 62-second video that focused on false 2020 election fraud claims and ended with about one second showing the Obamas’ faces on cartoon ape bodies set to “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” a clip that several outlets report was deleted after widespread outrage [1][4][5].
2. The administration’s account and the president’s response
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt initially characterized the material as an internet meme and urged critics to stop the “fake outrage,” and the president later said he had directed aides to post the clip but claimed he had not seen the specific segment that depicted the Obamas as apes while saying he would not apologize [1][3][6].
3. Bipartisan condemnation and political fallout
The image drew condemnation from prominent Democrats and prompted even some Republicans to criticize the post, producing an unusual cascade of intraparty rebukes for a president whose controversies often silence rivals; outlets documented swift bipartisan outrage and calls for removal before the account deleted the clip [7][8][6].
4. Why depicting Black people as apes is widely labeled racist
Multiple reports placed the image in the context of a centuries-old racist trope that compared Black people to animals—especially apes—used historically to justify slavery, lynching and segregation, noting that portraying Barack and Michelle Obama this way resurrects that dehumanizing tradition and explaining why commentators and civil-rights groups called the clip “vile” and “disgusting” [9][10][5].
5. The provenance of the clip and the role of AI/meme culture
News organizations traced the clip to an earlier X post by a conservative meme creator that circulated in October and reported that the offending segment appears AI-generated and was part of a larger montage showing multiple political figures as animals — a pattern that some supporters framed as a symbolic hierarchy with Trump as a “lion” — while critics stressed that recycling such imagery is not innocent satire but taps into dehumanizing iconography [4][11][12].
6. Competing narratives and the limits of available reporting
Reporting shows two competing frames: the White House calling the post a meme and urging “fake outrage,” and critics arguing the clip intentionally invoked racist imagery with real harm; while outlets document the post, deletion and reactions, sources do not establish definitively whether the post was intended to be racist as an objective fact beyond the clear historical associations and the president’s own refusal to apologize [1][3][2].
Conclusion: what the facts support and what remains interpretive
Factually, the post existed, showed the Obamas as apes for a brief moment, provoked bipartisan condemnation, and was removed; historically and culturally, the depiction aligns with well-documented dehumanizing tropes against Black people that many commentators and civil-rights voices cited in denouncing it — whether the president or his aides intended that specific racist meaning is contested by the White House’s meme defense and by Trump’s claim he did not view the offending frame, a claim reporters have treated skeptically but which the available reporting does not prove true or false [1][9][3].