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Watch: Trump says he was unaware of a racist clip portraying the Obamas as apes |
The clip, set to The Lion Sleeps Tonight, appeared at the end of a 62-second video that Trump posted featuring claims of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election. The video was later taken down.Speaking to reporters on Friday, Trump said “I didn’t make a mistake” when asked whether he intended to apologise. He said he had only watched the beginning of the video before it was posted by a staff member and was unaware it contained the offensive imagery.
Republican Senator Tim Scott, who is Black, condemned the video, calling it “the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House.”
The White House initially defended the clip as an “internet meme video” and told critics to “stop the fake outrage.”
Following strong backlash, including from several Republican senators, the post was removed from Trump’s Truth Social account. A White House official said a staffer had “erroneously” made the post.The clip—which echoes racist caricatures comparing Black people to monkeys—appears to have originated from an X post shared in October by conservative meme creator Xerias.The video also depicts several other high-profile Democrats as animals, including Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Former President Joe Biden is shown as an ape eating a banana.
The Obamas have not commented on the video.The post was among dozens shared on Trump’s Truth Social account overnight.
I look at a lot of thousands of things," the president said while aboard Air Force One on Friday, adding that after watching only part of the video he "gave it to the people who generally, they look at the whole thing".
He says he liked the video's message on voter fraud, but that if his staff had looked at the whole thing, "probably they would have had the sense to take it down".
"We took it down as soon as we found out about it," he added