Trump bumbles in answer about posting ‘Obama ape’ video and said it was ‘all over the place’ for years
President Donald Trump insisted a video posted to his Truth Social account, which featured a clip of Former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama as monkeys, and was widely condemned as racist, had already been “all over the place for years.”
Speaking with reporters Thurday, the president confirmed that he had not fired the White House staffer who he said had “erroneously” made the post last week that featured a brief clip of the Obamas as monkeys in a screen-recording of a video on voter fraud. The post caused uproar across the political divide.
“That was a video on, as you know, voter fraud,” Trump explained Thursday. “A fairly long video that had a little piece that had to do with ‘The Lion King.” Trump insisted that the voter fraud portion was a “strong piece.”
“The piece that you’re talking about was all over the place, many times, I believe, for years,” the president said of the clip featuring the Obamas’ faces superimposed onto the bodies of cartoon apes set to the song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.”
Trump has previously refused to apologize for the Truth Social video and said that he had only seen the first part of the video about voter fraud. But he said he condemns the racist clip.
After seeing the video, Republicans and Democrats had lambasted the president for posting the screen recording that featured the racist clip to his 11 million followers on Truth Social.
Senator Tim Scott, a Republican from South Carolina, called it “the most racist” thing he had seen from the White House. Senator Rodger Wicker, a Republican from Mississippi, called it “totally unacceptable” and called on Trump to apologize.
Initially, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt insisted that outrage directed toward the clip was “fake” and defended it as “an internet meme video depicting President Trump as King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from The Lion King.”
The clip originates from a longer video showing Democrats’ faces on various animals. However, none of the other Democrats are featured in the video posted on Truth Social.
But as criticisms mounted, the White House deleted the video, approximately 12 hours after it was posted, and said a staffer had “erroneously” posted it.
Some have called on the president to fire the staffer who supposedly made the post.
In the days after the incident, administration officials have sought to brush aside the controversy. Vice President JD Vance asserted it was “not a real controversy” and insisted there were other “real problems” to focus on.
