President Donald Trump has taken down a controversial social media post that featured racist imagery portraying former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as cartoon apes but has insisted he will not apologise for sharing the content.
The roughly one-minute video, which Trump removed late Thursday, largely promoted false claims surrounding alleged fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
Toward its conclusion, the clip abruptly transitioned to the edited imagery of the Obamas set to “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” by The Tokens.
Addressing reporters aboard Air Force One on Friday night, Trump said he only watched the opening section of the video before it was shared.
“I looked at the beginning of it. It was fine,” he said. “I looked in the first part and it was really about voter fraud…and the machines, how crooked it is, how disgusting it is. Then I gave it to the people. Generally, they’d look at the whole thing. But I guess somebody didn’t, and they posted.”
He added, “We took it down as soon as we found out about it.”
A White House official told NBC News that the post had been uploaded in error by a staff member and was removed shortly before noon on Friday.
While Trump said he condemned the racist portion of the video, he maintained that he had not acted wrongly.
“Of course” he condemns the racist parts, he said, adding, “No, I didn’t make a mistake.”
The post provoked swift and rare bipartisan condemnation. South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, the only Black Republican in the Senate, described it as “the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House” and demanded its removal. Trump later said he had spoken with Scott, calling him “great” and saying, “Tim understood that 100%.”
Other Republicans also criticised the imagery. Senator Pete Ricketts of Nebraska wrote, “Even if this was a ‘Lion King’ meme, a reasonable person sees the racist context to this. The White House should…remove this and apologize.”
Representative Mike Lawler of New York called the post “wrong and incredibly offensive—whether intentional or a mistake—and should be deleted immediately with an apology offered.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt initially defended the post, describing it as “an internet meme depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from ‘The Lion King,’” and urged the media to “stop the fake outrage.”
The backlash intensified because the imagery surfaced during Black History Month. Barack Obama became the first Black president of the United States in 2009.
Despite the deletion, several Republican lawmakers continued to call for an apology. Representative Mike Turner of Ohio said the images were “offensive, heartbreaking, and unacceptable,” while Representative Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania described the post as “a grave failure of judgment and…absolutely unacceptable from…anyone—most especially from the President of the United States.”
Senator John Curtis of Utah criticised the delay in taking the video down, stating that the content was “blatantly racist and inexcusable” and “should never have been posted or left published for so long.”
The episode adds to a pattern of Trump sharing manipulated or AI-generated content aimed at political opponents. It also comes amid renewed attention on claims tied to the 2020 election, including recent FBI activity involving voter records in Georgia.
Representatives for Barack and Michelle Obama did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
What you should know
Donald Trump removed a controversial video from his social media platform after widespread backlash over racist imagery depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as apes.
While the White House said the post was shared in error by a staff member, Trump declined to apologise, insisting he only viewed the beginning of the clip. The incident drew condemnation from both Democrats and Republicans, including senior GOP lawmakers who described the imagery as unacceptable and offensive.
The controversy has further reignited scrutiny of Trump’s continued promotion of disputed 2020 election claims and his use of provocative online content.
