WASHINGTON: The White House has removed a video shared by U.S. President Donald Trump that depicted former president Barack Obama and his wife Michelle Obama as apes, drawing condemnation from critics who described the content as racist.
Trump posted the minute-long video on his Truth Social account late Thursday while repeating his claims that the 2020 presidential election was rigged. The video included an apparently AI-generated clip showing dancing animals with the Obamas’ and other politicians’ faces superimposed.
The clip ended with a brief scene portraying the Obamas as apes dancing in a jungle setting to The Lion Sleeps Tonight.
A White House official said the video was posted in error by a staff member and has since been taken down.
An X user known as Xerias claimed responsibility for creating the video, which was first shared on social media in October.
The video mocked several of Trump’s political rivals, including President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Trump, meanwhile, was portrayed as a lion resting in a hammock.
White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt confirmed that the clip included in Trump’s post was the same one created by Xerias.
“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.”
The post was widely criticized by Trump’s opponents. California Governor Gavin Newsom’s press office described it as “disgusting” in a post on X.
This is not the first time Trump has shared content targeting the former president. In July, he posted an AI-generated video falsely depicting Obama being arrested by FBI agents in the Oval Office.
That post came amid criticism of Trump’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files, during which he accused Obama of “treason.” Trump has also pledged to use the Justice Department to pursue legal action against the former Democratic president.