President Donald Trump’s racist social media post featuring former President Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama, as primates in a jungle was deleted after a backlash from both Republicans and Democrats who criticized the video as offensive.
The Republican president’s Thursday night post was deleted Friday and blamed on a staffer after widespread backlash, from civil rights leaders to veteran Republican senators, for its treatment of the nation’s first Black president and first lady. The deletion, a rare admission of a misstep by the White House, came hours after press secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed “fake outrage” over the post. After calls for its removal for being racist -- including by Republicans -- the White House said a staffer had posted the video erroneously and it had been taken down.
The post was part of a flurry of social media activity on Trump's Truth Social account that amplified his false claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him, despite courts around the country and a Trump attorney general from his first term finding no evidence of fraud that could have affected the outcome.
Trump has a record of intensely personal criticism of the Obamas and of using incendiary, sometimes racist, rhetoric — from feeding the lie that Obama was not a native-born U.S. citizen to crude generalizations about majority Black countries.
The post came in the first week of Black History Month and days after a Trump proclamation that cited “the contributions of black Americans to our national greatness and their enduring commitment to the American principles of liberty, justice, and equality.”
An Obama spokeswoman said the former president, a Democrat, had no response.
Nearly all of the 62-second clip, which was among dozens of Truth Social posts from Trump overnight, appears to be from a conservative video alleging deliberate tampering with voting machines in battleground states as the 2020 presidential votes were tallied. At the 60-second mark is a quick scene of two primates, with the Obamas’ smiling faces imposed on them.
Those frames were taken from a separate video, previously circulated by an influential conservative meme maker. It shows Trump as “King of the Jungle” and depicts a range of Democratic leaders as animals, including Joe Biden, who is white, as a jungle primate eating a banana.
“This is from an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from the Lion King,” Leavitt said by text.
Disney's 1994 feature film that Leavitt referenced is set on the savannah, not in the jungle, and it does not include great apes.
“Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public,” Leavitt added.
By noon, the post had been taken down with responsibility placed on a Trump subordinate.
The White House explanation raised additional questions about the control of Trump’s social media account, which has also been used to levy import taxes, threaten military action, make domestic policy announcements and intimidate political rivals. The president often signs his name or initials after policy announcements.
The White House did not immediately respond to questions about its process for vetting posts and how it guarantees that the public knows when Trump himself is posting.
Trump and the official White House social media accounts frequently repost memes and artificial intelligence-generated videos. As Leavitt did Friday, Trump aides typically dismiss critiques and cast the images as humorous.
Yet while it was still up, Trump's post drew condemnation from across the political and ideological spectrum — and demands for an apology that had not come by the early afternoon.
The Rev. Bernice King, daughter of the assassinated civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr., resurfaced her father's words: “Yes. I'm Black. I'm proud of it. I'm Black and beautiful.” She praised Black Americans as “diverse, innovative, industrious, inventive” and added, “We are beloved of God as postal workers and professors, as a former first lady and president. We are not apes.”
The U.S. Senate's lone Black Republican, Tim Scott of South Carolina, called on Trump to take down the post. “Praying it was fake because it’s the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House,” Scott, who chairs Senate Republicans' midterm campaign arm, said on social media.
Another Republican, Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, is white but represents the state with the largest percentage of Black residents. Wicker called the post “totally unacceptable” and said the president should apologize.
Some Republicans who face tough reelections this November voiced concerns, as well, feeding an unusual cascade of intraparty criticism for a president who often has enjoyed a strangle-hold over fellow Republicans who stayed silent over some of Trump's previous controversial statements or fear a public spat with the president or losing his endorsement in a future campaign.
NAACP President Derrick Johnson pointed to Trump's wider political concerns, asserting that Trump is trying anything to distract from economic conditions and attention on the Jeffrey Epstein case files.
“Donald Trump’s video is blatantly racist, disgusting, and utterly despicable,” Johnson said in a statement. “You know who isn’t in the Epstein files? Barack Obama,” he continued. "You know who actually improved the economy as president? Barack Obama.”
There is a long history in the U.S. of powerful white figures associating Black people with animals, including apes, in demonstrably false and racist ways. The practice dates back to 18th century cultural racism and pseudo-scientific theories in which white people drew connections between Africans and monkeys to justify the enslavement of Black people in Europe and North America, and later to dehumanize freed Black people as an uncivilized threat to white people.
Thomas Jefferson, author of the Declaration of Independence, wrote in his famous text “Notes on the State of Virginia” that Black women were the preferred sexual partners of orangutans. President Dwight Eisenhower, discussing the desegregation of public schools in the 1950s, once argued that white parents were concerned about their daughters being in classrooms with “big Black bucks.” Obama, as a candidate and president, was featured as a monkey or other primate on T-shirts and other merchandise.
In his 2024 campaign, Trump said immigrants were “poisoning the blood of our country,” language similar to what Adolf Hitler said to dehumanize Jews in Nazi Germany.
During his first White House term, Trump referred to a swath of developing nations that are majority Black as “shithole countries.” He initially denied using the slur but admitted in December 2025 that he did say it.
When Obama was in the White House, Trump advanced the false claims that the 44th president, who was born in Hawaii, was born in Kenya and was constitutionally ineligible to serve. Trump, in interviews that helped endear him to many conservative voters, repeatedly demanded that Obama produce birth records and prove he was a “natural-born citizen” as required to become president.
Obama eventually released his Hawaii records. Trump finally acknowledged during his 2016 campaign, after having won the Republican nomination, that Obama was born in Hawaii. But he immediately said, falsely, that his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton started those birtherism attacks on Obama.
© Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
46 Comments
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Bob Fosse
“You know who isn’t in the Epstein files? Barack Obama,”
Ouch. That’s going to sting.
Good.
Jay
Sorry but if we're doing objective journalism here, then the headline should read exactly like this:
Trump's "racist" post about Obamas deleted after backlash despite White House earlier defending it"
Put "racist" in quotes, because that's all it is - an accusation, a subjective statement, not a fact. Real journalism reports the claim, not the feelings of those offended.
The fact is what one "progressive" person with a victim complex calls "racist" is sometimes just a hilarious meme or a completely coincidental image to other people thicker skin and a differing sense of humor. Calling someone "a primate in a jungle" - especially this doctored image joke clip, is to many people just an absurd exaggeration for laughs, the kind of dark humor that's been part of politics forever.
The most IMPORTANT thing I'd like to say is, if someone is "offended" or "triggered" by a word or an image, the onus is 100% on THEM. Not on the speaker, not on the poster, not on society to bubble-wrap reality. They need to either develop resilience, or prepare to spend their entire life as a perpetual victim, staying in safe spaces while the adults handle the world. Fragility is NOT a virtue. It's a pathology. Victimhood is NOT a personality. It's a choice. And choosing to be offended by everything is choosing weakness. And that goes for EVERYONE.
plasticmonkey
Hold the line!
Oops.
bass4funk
How is it racist though?
ThePunisher
Trump plumbing new depths of the sewer that he has turned the White house into. Absolute scum.
He is a putrid human being - and ALL those who have supported the foul sexually abusive criminal are equally as vile.
Underworld
Jay
The most IMPORTANT thing I'd like to say is, if someone reposts a racist video, the onus is 100% on THEM.
bass4funk
Why?
So he made the video himself?
Bob Fosse
100% bs nonsense from the most perpetually triggered poster here.
Jay
Underworld
Unfortunately, if the first thing you think of is "black people" when you see an image of an ape, then that says more about your subconscious racism than anything else. Apes are just animals. Smart, majestic creatures. Jumping straight to "racism" because of a cartoon image of one? That's your brain revealing its own biases. The ones screaming loudest are the projecting their own issues.
ThePunisher
It's no surprise that you can not see how despicable posting an image of black people depicted as apes is.
Shame on you.
starpunk
Because his ignorance about Black people and Africa as well as his uncouth unfunny RACIST 'joke' is only showing once again what a juvenile childish brat he truly is. As well as his immaturity and total lack of class and diplomacy.
One of the bootlickers and butt-kissers in his cabinet did.
Just like the Punisher said, lines are drawn.
Either you support democracy or you don't.
Either you support morality or you don't.
Either you support the law and the Constitution, or you don't.
YESS
Don't worry, I've never been triggered by anything you've written, Robert. Not once. But I have to ask - WHY do you equate apes to black people? That's the real question. Apes are animals - intelligent, social. If your brain instantly defaults "ape = black person", that's on your subconscious wiring, unfortunately.
bass4funk
Ok, but the emotional rant aside, I'm not interested in that, so I ask you again, how is it racist? Biden was a monkey as well and Whoopie a hippo, is that racist as well? AOC and Schumer are jackasses, so please explain to me in detail as to how this is all racist? I'm generally curious.
Bob Fosse
I don’t. Racists do. They should be singled out and attacked whenever they do, in a meme posted by the WhiteHouse for example.
Also those that try and defend or deflect from it. They are also despicable.
YESS
And yes, I'm aware my profile is suddenly different- an unfortunate result of "mysteriously" not being able to log in all of a sudden... definitely not for having a difference of opinion, right? Couldn't possibly be regime censorship quietly nuking accounts that refuse to play along with the approved narrative. That's never happened before, I'm sure.
Bob Fosse
There’s not much subconscious involved when somebody’s face is imposed onto an image of an ape.
Have you seen the video or read the article above yet or did you just go straight into fly off the handle mode?
bass4funk
Really now? So kindly explain this to me….
https://x.com/fft1776/status/1779787895479386170?s=46
https://x.com/gingergquinn/status/2019894673456918803?s=46
Yeah, just an out-of-control racist, damn him!
plasticmonkey
Are you kidding or just being disingenuous?
This would have been considered racist 100 years ago even.
bass4funk
I'm not kidding, nor am I being disingenuous.
According to whom?
buchailldana
Waiting for people to defend the indefensible.
And we know exactly who they are how they will flubber and prevaricate and try and excuse this.
How you can look in the mirror and think that this is ok.
It's disgusting.
It's a disgrace
And it sums up the maga mentality
plasticmonkey
Why don’t you ask Tim Scott?
Also, if it wasn’t racist, why was the post taken down and the mystery “staffer” thrown under the bus?
shirokuma
The best excuse yet.
I can’t see the forest for the trees.
plasticmonkey
History books.
Though perhaps not in the homeskooling editions.
FizzBit
I got an image of a bunch of 15 year old high school girls standing around a locker gossiping about, you know, what high school girls like to gossip about. Nothing important.
Bob Fosse
I wouldn’t boast about that.
bass4funk
You do know a lot of things we learned in history was either not true, had to be revised or overly fabricated, so it depends on what we are are talking about, the context etc.
I wasn’t home schooled so I wouldn’t know either way, but I will say, we are learning a lot of different things more recently about history and a lot of things we were taught wasn’t always historically accurate.
JJE
But no outrage for him bombing seven countries and killing thousands...
Let's not offend him for the sake of sensibility.
plasticmonkey
Here’s a primer on the history of pejoratively comparing Blacks to apes.
https://theconversation.com/comparing-black-people-to-monkeys-has-a-long-dark-simian-history-55102
Maybe the GOP should “hold the line” and use more of these racist memes in their midterm campaigns.
bass4funk
But they are not apes, they are humans. Whoopie is depicted as a hippo. Is that racist? Also, Tim Scott has other issues as to why he's a target by conservatives.
https://x.com/kendallnmigues/status/2019900874953195546?s=46
patkim
Trump has a case of ODS. Obama continues to live rent-free in Trump's brain.
But of course, we can never believe Trump's lies. After all, he did promise that he would cut medicine prices 100%. No, 500%. No, sorry, he changed it to 1000%. No, actually, I think he even went as high as 2000%. Which, means I'm still waiting for him to pay me to get medicine.
TaiwanIsNotChina
Why does Trump even hide that he is a racist now? He's already lost whatever gains MAGAs made with blacks and latinos.
syniksan
The rambling lunatic is also filthy disgusting racist pig.
ClippetyClop
You get giddy when Putin erases two million people.
Best sit this one out lad.
starpunk
And it IS dehumanizing. Milosevic said that about Muslims, the Hutu Power dictatorship said that about Tutsis, and other fascists have used such hateful language. And it IS fascist talk.
trump talks like a fascist, thinks like one, acts like one, has a personality cult like one, he IS a fascist.
Sheepishly admitted it, like a kid. And remember, this past Christmas Day he launched massive rocket attacks on one of 'those' countries screaming that they were persecuting Christians - like he cares about that.
Projectionism. A bully's tactic. Sassymouth trump claimed that Obama 'invented' the ISIL too despite the fact that when those terroristic fanatical turds started that horrible genocide Obama himself ordered nonstop 24/7 air + sea attacks on them. Doing his job as Commander-in-Chief.
trump has proven time after time that he's unsociable, undiplomatic, irresponsible, egocentric, obnoxious, and grossly immature. Nobody ever told that disgusting criminal pornographic incestuous rapist NO. He's so egotistical and if I were a foreign head of state or a diplomat, I wouldn't even want to talk with him. We all have had these dirtbags while were in school, they'd be causing problems for everyone in class and spoiling everything.
Well trumpTurd is one of those. I don't refer to him as a 'POTUS' and I never will.
There is nothing in science, evolutionary or genetic that indicates that black people or any race of people as a type of apes or even being descended from them. Apes are apes, people are people. And all religions worth anything state that all people are made in the image of God. That's a mighty broad speculation in itself.
Very shameful and disgraceful attitude. This is the 21st century. Somethings are not funny anymore, if they ever were. And this RACIST crud isn't funny or even remotely close to it. It never was.
sunfunbun
Lies and narrative abound with MAGA, ubiquitously.
Obviously a racist act by Trump.
Sensitivity toward being called a Mexican food to describe Trump, yet cannot admit how something from long ago...a Howard Cosell framing of a primate to a black person led to uproar and awareness to not compare the two, and known by all...liberals, conservatives, Dems, Repubs...as words and thoughts of racism.
This, back in 1983, and in 2026, people actually use this argument;
Complete nonsense and a ridiculous narrative.
TaiwanIsNotChina
I assume the russian is just upset he didn't get to kill them first.
TaiwanIsNotChina
Trump has a subordinate filling up his channel with filth? I thought that was why he wanted this job in the first place.
funkymofo
Distract them from the pedophilia by reminding them you’re a racist.
sunfunbun
Red herring and total lack of sensibility commenting on sensibility gives for a post likely deleted soon.
But I will say, AI couldn't have written this, logic fallacies are too dumb for it.
bass4funk
I’m not talking about Milosevic, please focus.
So if that's true then why would he give money to Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton and help the black community, a racist and fascist wouldn't do that, ever.
Yes or are you telling me that Somalia is a paradise? Tell me, how many people in America would want to take a trip there? Haiti? Afghanistan? So how would you describe these countries?
Which is factually true.
You don't need to, but he is POTUS
So now liberals believe in God and evolution?
Ok, but again, you and every other liberal on this site did not answer my previous questions, just more emotional bloviating. If Trump said something racially derogatory or used racial epithets, I would understand, but I can't see how the video is in any way shape or form racist. Shumer was depicted as a monkey, so I guess that's racist as well?
chotto_2
bass4funkToday 06:41 am JST
That stupid lying Fembot lying Levit is also heading for somewhere hot.
Trump is a racist pig.
And if any of the usual sspects on here don't admit it, then they are, too.
wallace
I have seen it. Vile, racist, hateful. Something that would have happened at the height of the KKK. No apology from Trump. The worst to have ever come out of the White House on Trump's social account. Both Democrats and Republicans upset by it.
donburi
Wow, just wow!
The divider in chief is an imbecile, a moron, a total embarrassment.
And that goes for his administration and cabinet whose only qualification was loyalty, competence was never considered.
DaDude
Why are posts like this allowed mods?
wallace
It's 2026, not 1826, or even 1926; no one should be posting vile racist images, let alone Trump.
bass4funk
She did nothing wrong.
Then, if that were the case he would have never helped Sharpton or Jackson and the Black community
Well, that is your personal opinion. So when Hillary Clinton back in 1996 said, “They are not just gangs of kids anymore. They are often the kinds of kids that are called superpredators. No conscience, no empathy. We can talk about why they ended up that way, but first we have to bring them to heel.”
Now that is a blatant and racist statement, this is how she thought and felt and said it with conviction and intent. Again, the usual and typical hypocrisy from the left just knows no bounds.