U.S. President Donald Trump said he will not apologize for the publication of a video on his official Truth Social account where former President Barack Obama (2009-2017), and former First Lady Michelle, were portrayed as apes and the video was later removed from the platform after receiving harsh criticism for racist content.
A reporter asked Trump, aboard AF1 en route to Florida, if his Administration would apologize for the release of this video and he replied, “No, I didn’t make a mistake.”
The president added that he will not fire the person who made the video, which he said he had not seen in its entirety and that he only “gave it to people” so that they could publish it.
The racist representation of the couple as chimpanzees in a jungle occurs at the end of a cut in which the song ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’ plays and which deals with the alleged intervention to manipulate Dominion Voting System’s voting machines in the 2020 presidential election in which Democrat Joe Biden (2021-2025) won over Trump.
Dominion Voting System won several lawsuits against media outlets allied with the Trump-driven narrative that they were behind alleged manipulation of election results, something they proved false in court in several cases.
The racist cut that mocks the Obamas is shown in the last second of the video shared by Trump on Truth Social and appears to have been created by an Instagram user (xerias_x) who creates AI-powered videos and pro-Trump memes.
The removal of the video is an unusual gesture for Trump, especially after White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said hours earlier that the anger generated by the content was “feigned outrage.”
“This is a viral internet video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from The Lion King,” the press secretary wrote in a statement shared with media outlets hours before the video was removed.
The publication generated criticism even from members of the Republican Party, including Tim Scott, a black senator from South Carolina who is considered a close ally of the New York mogul.
“I’m praying it’s fake, because it’s the most racist thing I’ve ever seen come out of the White House. The president should remove it,” Scott wrote on his X profile.
Filed under: Trump does not apologize video Obama
With information from EFE
