Did Trump post a photo of the Obamas as apes
Executive summary
President Donald Trump posted a video on his Truth Social account that contains a brief AI-generated clip portraying former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama with their faces superimposed on ape bodies, an image widely characterized as racist by news organizations and public figures [1] [2] [3]. The White House defended the post as part of a meme video and traced the clip to a pro‑Trump account on X, while critics across the political spectrum called it a grotesque evocation of a long‑standing racist trope [4] [5] [6].
1. What Trump actually posted: the clip and how it appears
Late on the night in question, Trump shared a roughly one‑minute video that promotes a conspiracy narrative about the 2020 election and, in its final seconds, flashes a two‑second AI‑generated shot showing the Obamas’ faces on ape bodies dancing in a jungle to “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” a frame described and reproduced in reporting across outlets [7] [8] [6].
2. How news organizations and watchdogs described the content
Mainstream outlets uniformly described the imagery as racist, calling it a depiction of the Obamas as primates and noting that it echoes historic dehumanizing caricatures of Black people; publications including The New York Times, CNBC, AP and Reuters framed the clip as a blatant perpetuation of that trope [9] [1] [2] [10].
3. Reactions: bipartisan condemnation and defenses
Prominent Democrats and civil‑rights groups condemned the post as racist and demanded denouncements, while Republican voices offered mixed responses—some like Sen. Tim Scott called it the “most racist thing” from the White House, and other allies defended the president by calling the outrage “fake” and pointing to a larger meme video as context [1] [8] [4]. The White House press secretary characterized the clip as taken from an internet meme portraying Trump as “King of the Jungle” and urged critics to “stop the fake outrage,” linking to a longer October video on X that contains the same AI segment [5] [4].
4. Provenance and technical points reporters have established
Reporting traces the brief Obama‑as‑ape clip to a 55‑second AI‑style video first posted in October on an X account (@XERIAS_X or @xerias_x in different reports) that presents Trump as a lion and various Democrats as animals; multiple outlets note a watermark matching that account on the clip Trump reposted [8] [4] [3]. Journalists describe the sequence as likely AI‑generated and note that Trump’s post was one of dozens in a late‑night flurry amplifying election conspiracy claims [8] [11].
5. Historical and ethical context journalists emphasize
Coverage situates the image within a long American history of racist visual tropes that equated Black people with apes to justify slavery and violence, a context critics invoked when condemning the post and when urging Republicans to repudiate it; outlets and civil‑rights groups highlighted that historical lineage while describing public outrage [6] [9] [7].
6. Limits of the record and unresolved questions
Reporting establishes that Trump shared the clip and that it originated on a pro‑Trump X account in October, but none of the cited articles provide forensic verification of who created the AI element or whether Trump or a White House aide personally selected that exact frame; the provenance beyond the reposted watermark, the chain of custody inside the White House communications process, and any internal deliberations about keeping or removing the post are not documented in these sources [4] [8] [1].