President Donald Trump shared a video on his Truth Social account that contained racist, AI-generated images showing former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as apes. The post quickly drew harsh criticism from people across the political spectrum.
According to Mediaite, the 62-second video was posted around 11:44 PM ET. Most of the video focused on conspiracy theories about vote-counting machines and the 2020 election, claiming that machines changed results in states like Georgia.
At the very end of the clip was a roughly one-second part that showed the Obamas’ faces placed onto apes’ bodies, set to the song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” by The Tokens. The video had a watermark linking it to a pro-Trump account on X with tens of thousands of followers. Critics quickly said the president was spreading racist imagery and harmful stereotypes.
Trump’s social media post sparked fierce political reactions
California Governor Gavin Newsom’s office responded strongly on X, saying “Disgusting behavior by the President. Every single Republican must denounce this. Now.” Even anti-Trump conservatives spoke out against the post. The account Republicans Against Trump said “Trump just posted a video on Truth Social that includes a racist image of Barack and Michelle Obama as monkeys. There’s no bottom.”
It is not clear if President Trump knew the offensive images were in the video when he posted it. The post was part of a late-night social media session that included posts about midterm elections, claims about manipulated elections, attacks on Democratic opponents, and content about Jeffrey Epstein. Minutes before sharing the controversial video, the president had shared content about the Black conservative movement.
The White House defended the post on Friday. Leavitt criticized what he called “fake outrage” by the media. He claimed the one-second clip was part of a larger meme that showed President Trump as the “King of the Jungle.” This isn’t the first time the White House has defended controversial statements from the president.
A longer version of this meme video was first published online in October by the same X account shown on the video Trump shared. That longer meme shows the president as a lion and uses animal characters from Disney’s The Lion King to represent other Democrats and liberals, including Hillary Clinton as a warthog and New York mayor Zohran Mamdani as a hyena.
The post is part of a growing pattern of attacks by President Trump against the former president. In recent months, President Trump has repeatedly accused former President Obama of “treason” based on conspiracy theories about intelligence assessments from the 2016 election.
He has also previously shared AI-generated videos that falsely showed former President Obama being arrested and sent to prison. The president’s recent social media activity has included his unconventional movie tariff proposal that raised concerns in Hollywood.
Published: Feb 6, 2026 01:32 pm