Donald Trump defended posting the video of Barack and Michelle Obama depicted as apes, which has been widely condemned as racist.
In the AI-generated video, which Trump uploaded to his Truth Social account on Feb. 6, the Obamas’ faces are edited onto the bodies of gorillas. The clip was deleted from his page 12 hours later.
During press interviews on Thursday, Trump refused to apologize for the video and mentioned that he hasn’t fired the staffer the White House claimed is responsible for posting the video.
Watch the clip below.
“Mr. President, have you fired or disciplined that staffer who posted the video from your account that included the Obamas?” CBS’ Weijia Jiang inquired.
“No, I haven’t,” Trump said. “That was a video on, as you know, voter fraud, and a fairly long video, and they had a little piece that had to do with ‘The Lion King.’”
He continued: “It’s been very well—it’s been shown all over the place, long before that was posted. But that was a very strong, and I’m sure you saw it, very strong piece on voter fraud. And the piece that you’re talking about was all over the place many times, I believe for years.”
This is not Trump’s first brush with a racism scandal, as he has been accused of being both a racist and a bigot in the past due to his public views on Black people and other communities of color. Several politicians and media figures slammed the president’s post.
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office responded on X, writing at the time, “Disgusting behavior by the President. Every single Republican must denounce this. Now.”
Following backlash, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt released a statement on the issue, calling the outcry against the video “fake outrage.”
“This is from an Internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from ‘The Lion King,’” Leavitt said. “Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public.”
