Washington — The White House on Friday removed an election-conspiracy video shared by President Trump on social media that included racist footage depicting former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as apes.
A White House official said a staffer “erroneously made the post,” which has been taken down.
The move came after Mr. Trump faced backlash from Democrats and Republicans alike for posting the video, which was called “racist,” “offensive” and “unacceptable.” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt had said earlier Friday that the footage was part of an “internet meme video” that depicted the president as “King of the Jungle” and Democrats as characters from the Lion King.
“Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public,” Leavitt had said in her earlier statement, in response to questions about the post.
The video, which is just over a minute long, promoted false claims that the 2020 presidential election was rigged against Mr. Trump. Toward the end of the video was a roughly two-second clip that shows the Obamas’ heads edited onto the bodies of primates, with the song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” playing.
Mr. Trump shared the video to his Truth Social account at 11:44 p.m. Thursday. A link to the video now shows the page as “not found.”
Obama was the nation’s first Black president and Michelle Obama was the first Black first lady. Mr. Trump has a history of sharing disparaging and racist memes about the Obamas. The president also amplified for years a conspiracy theory that Obama was born in Kenya and therefore ineligible to serve as president. Amid pressure to disavow the so-called “birther” claim, Mr. Trump finally said during the 2016 presidential campaign that “President Obama was born in the United States. Period.”
There has been no reaction from the Obamas, and for now they are not commenting, a spokeswoman said.
The original video that Leavitt referenced was shared on X last October by the user @xerias_x, who declared, “President Trump: King of the Jungle.” The 55-second-long video appears to be generated by AI and opens with Obama and Michelle Obama’s heads superimposed onto apes’ bodies.
