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Donald Trump refused to apologize after posting a racist video on his social media account that depicted Barack and Michelle Obama as monkeys.
The clip appeared during one of the 79-year-old president's increasingly frequent late-night tweets on his Truth Social account, and shows the smiling faces of the former president and former first lady superimposed on the bodies of primates in a jungle setting, swaying to the song The Lion Sleeps Tonight.
They appear briefly at the end of a minute-long video created by a third party that reinforces Trump's ongoing but false claim that he won the 2020 election, when in fact he lost to Joe Biden. The conspiratorial video was a repost of content with the logo of the Patriot News Outlet, a Republican Trump-supporting page.
Although the White House initially defended the video in a statement from its press secretary, it was later deleted and reporters were told it had been posted without the president's knowledge by an aide.
Natalie Harp, a Trump aide and former anchor for the conspiracy network One America News, reportedly has access to the president's Truth Social account. As he often does, Trump undermined his staff's efforts to justify his behavior by telling reporters that he had approved the posting of the video.
“I only saw the first part,” the president said. “I didn’t see the whole thing; apparently there was some kind of image at the end that people didn’t like. I wouldn’t have liked it either. But I didn’t see it. I only saw the first part… then I gave it to people. Usually they see the whole thing, but apparently someone didn’t and posted it — and we took it down.”
When asked if he would apologize, as Republican officials had suggested, Trump reacted sharply. "No, I didn't do anything wrong," the president said of the racist meme posted on his social media.
By mid-morning Eastern time Friday, the post had garnered nearly 5,600 likes, but it had also sparked outrage from both sides of the political spectrum for including such an overtly racist stereotype of the first black U.S. president and his wife, both Democrats. However, few Republicans had spoken out, and none from the party's congressional leadership.
Tim Scott, a Republican senator from South Carolina, the only black Republican senator and a former candidate for the party's presidential nomination, wrote on X: "I'm praying it's fake, because it's the most racist thing I've seen from this White House. The President needs to take it down."
The White House earlier this morning defended the post and mocked the media for highlighting the scandal. But around noon on Friday, the post was removed from Trump's Truth Social account, and the White House claimed the publication was a staff error.
Earlier, Mike Lawler, a Republican congressman from New York, wrote: "The president's post is wrong and extremely offensive - whether intentional or accidental - and should be deleted immediately, with an apology offered."
Trump's post just before midnight on Thursday was quickly condemned by the social media account Republicans Against Trump, but voices from the Republican leadership were absent.
“Why do Republican leaders like [Senate Majority Leader] John Thune continue to stand by this sick individual? Every Republican should immediately condemn Donald Trump’s disgusting bigotry,” said Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic minority leader in the House of Representatives, in a post on X.
Jeffries praised the Obamas as "brilliant, compassionate, and patriotic Americans" and denounced Trump as "a disgusting, deranged, and malignant being."
Neither of the two top Republicans in Congress, Thune and Mike Johnson, the House speaker, offered comment, prompting Chuck Schumer, the Democratic senator from New York and Senate minority leader, to write in X:
"Racist. Filthy. Disgusting. This is dangerous and degrades our country - where are the Senate Republicans?"
"The president should immediately delete the post and apologize to Barack and Michelle Obama, two great Americans who make Donald Trump look like a petty and envious person."
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