Donald Trump has defended his posting of a video depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as monkeys, which has been widely condemned as racist.
An AI-generated video that President Trump uploaded to his Truth Social account on February 6 shows the Obamas’ faces edited onto the bodies of gorillas. The clip was removed from his page 12 hours later.
At a press conference Thursday, President Trump refused to apologize for the video and said the White House had not fired the staffer he claimed were responsible for posting the video.
Watch the clip below.
“Mr. President, have you fired or disciplined the staff member who posted the video from your account that included the Obamas?” asked CBS’ Weijia Jiang.
“No, I’ve never heard of it,” Trump said. “It was a video about, you know, voter fraud, which was quite a long video. And then there was a short piece related to ‘The Lion King.’
“The article was very well received. It was being aired all over the place long before it was posted. But it was very powerful stuff, and I think you saw it. It was very powerful stuff about voter fraud. And I think what you’re talking about has been floating around a lot over the years.”
This is not the first time Trump has faced a racism scandal. Trump has been accused in the past of being a racist and bigot because of his public views of black people and other people of color. Several politicians and media members condemned the president’s post.
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office responded to X, writing at the time, “This is a disgusting action by the president. All Republicans must condemn this. Now.”
Following the backlash, White House press secretary Caroline Leavitt released a statement on the matter, calling the protests over the video a “false outrage.”
“This is from an Internet meme video that portrays President Trump as the king of the jungle and Democrats as characters from ‘The Lion King,'” Levitt said. “Stop the false outrage and report today on the things that actually matter to the American people.”
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