It’s the video clip that ricocheted around the world, igniting a firestorm of condemnation and explanation since being posted by President Donald Trump on his Truth Social account Thursday night.
The clip — which portrays former President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama as laughing apes and is inserted at the end of a 62-second video of conspiracy theories about the 2020 election that Trump posted Thursday night — is part of a longer video posted by a user on X in October.
Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the only Black U.S. senator, said it was “the most racist thing (he’s) seen out of this White House” in a post viewed nearly 15 million times on X; Scott urged Trump to take down the video, which he eventually did.
Judy Daubenmier, chair of the Livingston County Democrats, called Trump’s post “despicable,” while Deb Drick, chair of the Livingston County Republicans, said that while she found the post “foolish,” she “did not believe the president’s intent was racist.”
For those unfamiliar with the details of the controversy, the New York Times explains that the video Trump reposted on Thursday “starts off as a look at conspiracy theories about the 2020 election. It originally aired during a 2021 event hosted by Mike Lindell, the chief executive of MyPillow and one of the most prolific spreaders of 2020 election misinformation.
“At the end, spliced in, is the clip portraying the Obamas, which appeared to have been taken from a video that was shared in October by a user on X with the caption ‘President Trump: King of the Jungle.’
“In that video, several high-profile Democrats — including former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Mayor Zohran Mamdani of New York, former President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and former Vice President Kamala Harris — were shown as various animals, while Mr. Trump was depicted as a lion. The video ended with the animals bowing down to Mr. Trump. (The president shared only the part of the video where the Obamas are shown as apes.)”
You can read the entire New York Times story on the video by clicking here.
“While the President didn’t create any of the images, I completely agree sharing it was in poor taste,” Drick said. “I do not believe the President’s intent was racist in nature. Foolish, yes, but not racist.”
Drick went on to say that while she thinks the video should not have been shared, she doesn’t agree with the “media’s posting the image as though it was a standalone act, completely changing the context.”
But Daubenmier called the post “despicable,” and said Trump is “resorting to the worst racist trope, dehumanizing a former president and First Lady.”
“That is a bridge too far anytime, but especially in this political climate,” Daubenmier said. “He won’t stop there. Soon he will move on to labeling all his political opponents as less than human unless Republicans stand up and condemn him. But I am not holding my breath that many will do that.”
