Donald Trump said Friday evening, after a racist video depicting Barack and Michelle Obama Monkeys, posted on his social media account and later deleted, said he had ordered assistants to post the offending video, but he had not seen that part of the clip and refused to apologize for it.
The clip appeared on one of the 79-year-old US presidents Increasingly often Late-night posting sprees to his Truth social account, and the smiling faces of the former president and first lady superimposed on the bodies of primates in a jungle setting, were joked to the song The Lion Sleeps Tonight.
They appear briefly at the end of a minute-long video made by a third party that expands on Trump’s persistent but false claim that he lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden. The conspiracy-theory video is a repost of content stamped with the logo of Patriot News Outlet, a website that supports Trump, a Republican.
Although the White House initially defended the video in a statement from the press secretary, the video was later deleted and told reporters that it was posted by an aide, without the president’s knowledge.
Natalie Harp, a Trump aide and former anchor of the scheming One American News, reported Has access to the President’s Truth social account.
As he often does, Trump undercut his aides’ attempts to explain away his own behavior by telling reporters he approved the posting of the video. “I saw the first part,” the president said. “I haven’t seen the whole thing; I’m guessing there’s some kind of ending to it [thing] People don’t like it. I don’t like it either. But I didn’t see it, I saw the first part… then I gave it to people. Usually they see the whole thing, but I guess someone didn’t and they posted – and we took it down.
Asked if Republican Party officials would also apologize, Trump bristled. “No, I did nothing wrong,” the racist meme president posted on his social media account.
As of mid-morning ET Friday, the post had attracted nearly 5,600 likes, but also drawn ire from both sides of the aisle for including such a blatantly racist trope about the US’s first black president and his wife Democrats. But only a little Republicans No one spoke from the party’s Congress leadership.
Tim Scott, a South Carolina senator, the only black Republican in the US Senate and a former contender for the party’s presidential nomination, posted On X: “It’s fake, because it’s the most racist thing I’ve ever seen come out of this White House. The president should take it down.”
Earlier in the day, the White House defended the post and mocked the media for highlighting the scandal. But the post was removed from Trump’s Truth social account on Friday afternoon, and the White House said the posting was a staff error.
Earlier, there was Mike Lawler, a Republican congressman from New York has been posted: “The president’s post was false and incredibly offensive — whether intentional or by mistake — and should be removed immediately with an apology.”
Anti-Trump social media accounts quickly condemned Trump’s post just before midnight Thursday, but GOP leadership voices were not heard.
“Why are GOP leaders like this? [Senate majority leader] Is John Thune standing by this sick man? Every single Republican should immediately condemn Donald Trump’s disgusting folly,” said Democratic House Minority Leader and New York Congressman Hakeem Jeffries. A post On X.
Jeffries praised the Obamas as “intelligent, kind and patriotic Americans” and denounced Trump as a “vile, undesirable and deadly bottom eater”.
The top two Republicans in Congress, Thune and House Speaker Mike Johnson, did not comment, prompting New York Democrat and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. Post In X: “Racism. Despicable. Disgusting. It’s dangerous and has degraded our country – where are the Senate Republicans?
“The president should immediately step down and apologize to two great Americans, Barack and Michelle Obama. Donald Trump Look like a petty, jealous person.
California’s Democratic governor Gavin Newsom was among the first to comment.
“Disgusting behavior by a president. Every single Republican should condemn it. Now.” His post stated.
Trump’s second term is coming to an end Severe episodes Racism and misogyny. He often attacks Ilhan Omara Somali American representative, called her and other immigrants “garbage”, and unfolded Unprecedented attacks On legal and undocumented immigrants.
In almost every case, Republican opposition was low.
In a statement to the Guardian early Friday, hours before Trump’s post was deleted, White House press secretary Carolyn Leavitt tried to defuse the outrage. She linked to X’s post last October via a separate right-wing account that had a 55-second Video Obama seems to have taken a clip from it. It begins with the Obamas depicted as apes, then shows Biden’s head mounted on an ape’s body and other prominent Democrats depicted as other animals, while Trump is shown as a male lion.
“This is from an internet meme video that portrays President Trump as the king of the jungle Democrats As characters from The Lion King. Please stop the fake outrage and report on what really matters to the American people today,” Leavitt said.
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) rejected Leavitt’s response and called Trump’s video “blatantly racist, disgusting and downright despicable.”
Derrick Johnson, the group’s national president, said in a statement: “Trump is clearly trying hard to distract us. The Epstein Files And his economy failed rapidly. You know who’s not in the Epstein files? Barack Obama. You know who improved the economy as president? Barack Obama.”
He added: “Voters are watching and will remember this at the ballot box.”
Friday’s post, which ends with a flash clip of Obama, focuses mostly on false and unsubstantiated claims from Trump that ballot-counting company Dominion Voting Systems helped steal the 2020 presidential election from Trump with doctored vote-counting machines.
The company agreed to a $787.5m settlement A landmark defamation lawsuit in April 2023 from Fox News.
