US President Donald Trump posted a racist AI video Thursday night that depicts former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama as monkeys.
The clip of the Obamas was edited into a one-minute video set to the song promoting the conspiracy theory that the 2020 US election fraud was debunked. The lion will sleep tonight.
Both Barack and Michelle’s faces were edited into ape bodies.
The New York Times reported that the clip of the Obamas was taken from a video posted by user X last October with the caption “President Trump: King of the Jungle” and a lion emoji.
In the video, several prominent politicians, including Hillary Clinton, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Zoran Mamdani, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, were depicted as zebras, giraffes and other animals, while Trump appeared as a lion and others prostrated.
Portraying the Obamas as apes plays on racist stereotypes that slave traders have historically used to dehumanize Black people and excuse violence against them. President Trump posted the video near the beginning of Black History Month, which celebrates the history and achievements of Black people each February, while referencing the legacy of slavery and racism.
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The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) said in a post on
California Governor Gavin Newsom condemned the president’s use of blatantly racist imagery, calling the president’s actions “disgusting” and urging Republicans to “condemn” it.
South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott said in an X post that the video was “the most racist thing I’ve seen in this White House” and called on the president to remove it.
In response to Trump’s post, former Obama administration official and author Ben Rhodes said the president was a “stain” on American history.
He also wrote, “Let Trump and his racists know that future Americans will accept the Obamas as beloved figures.”
“This is from an Internet meme video that depicts President Trump as the king of the jungle and Democrats as the kings of the jungle,” White House press secretary Caroline Leavitt told reporters Friday morning. lion king. Stop the false outrage and report today about what actually matters to the American people,” said AFP White House correspondent Danny Kemp.
Trump shared more than 60 posts on Truth Social Thursday night, including election conspiracy propaganda and calls for people to add his face to Mount Rushmore.
The president has a history of targeting marginalized communities. Most recently, he said Somalis living in the United States are “trash” and that Somalia is not a real country.
The rhetoric comes ahead of the administration’s anti-immigrant crackdown in Minnesota, home to a large Somali immigrant population, a small number of whom were found to have committed fraud in state-run programs.
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