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Trump condemns Obama ape video posted by White House aide, but no apology forthcoming

February 7, 2026 | | Print Article

Cries of racism were echoed by the president as he set the record straight about a since-deleted “offensive and unacceptable” Truth Social post fixated on by corporate media.

Friday, Democrats and Republicans alike had called on President Donald Trump to delete a social media post with an errant depiction of former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as apes and issue an apology. While the post was deleted, the chief executive offered no remorse to the spirit of the age, instead offering a reminder about the video’s actual content and the White House’s “immediate” response upon learning of the unwanted extra content.

Speaking with reporters aboard Air Force One, ABC News’ Fritz Farrow had pressed Trump on the video, “At the very least, do you condemn the racist parts of the video?” to which the president replied, “Of course I do. Yeah.”

Trump had explained that he’d only “looked at the first part” of the video, which discussed concerns with voting machines, before passing it off to his team. “It was about voter fraud … 2020 voter fraud, and I didn’t see the whole thing.”

“Then, I gave it to the people. Generally, they’d look at the whole thing, but I guess somebody didn’t and we posted … We took it down as soon as we found out about it,” he went on.

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Reporters had also noted how some Republicans, like South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, had added their voices to the rabble of leftists deeming the video “racist” with some even calling for the president to issue an apology, “Is that something you’re going to do?”

To that, the commander-in-chief responded, “No, I didn’t make a mistake.”

When one reporter attempted to twist the issue to relate to the cognitive decline of then-President Joe Biden, Trump offered, “I know what’s going on a hell of a lot better than you do. You don’t know what’s going on. Joe Biden didn’t have a clue. But, we know everything … If Joe Biden were elected or if Kamala were elected, we wouldn’t have a country right now.”

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Where it concerned the content of the video and how it appeared on the president’s Truth Social account, journalist Miranda Devine had posted, “Appears that the White House social media staffer was lazy and didn’t check the autoplay. If it wasn’t laziness he/she should be removed and all videos should be double-checked before posting. The Dems and their ‘rapid response’ media handmaidens are dining out on this, and as usual will go too far.”

Likewise, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called out the broader context of the video from which the snippet was pulled in a statement that read, “This is from an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from ‘The Lion King.’ Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public.”

In the video, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton takes the part of Pumbaa the warthog with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (NY) riding her back as Timon the meerkat. New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is paired with California Gov. Gavin Newsom as a couple of donkeys, Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker is an elephant, California Sen. Adam Schiff is a giraffe, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (NY) is a Zebra and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is a hyena, among other animals.

Additionally, Biden is depicted as a monkey beside former Vice President Kamala Harris, who looked to be a tortoise. That had stopped Schumer from decrying the election video as “Racist. Vile. Abhorrent,” and calling for an apology to the Obamas, “who make Donald Trump look like a small, envious man.”

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Further backing Trump, South Carolina Pastor Mark Burns, an early supporter of the Make America Great Again leader, asserted on X that he’d spoken with the president, who assured him “clearly and unequivocally that he did not post it.”

“He understands the painful and racist history in America of depicting African Americans as apes, a tactic long used by white supremacists to demean Black intelligence and humanity. He knows this is wrong, offensive, and unacceptable,” wrote the spiritual advisor who called for the staffer to be fired before further addressing the history of racism.

Burns went on to assert it “must be confronted, not excused. Accountability matters. And leaders must always speak clearly when lines are crossed.”

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Kevin Haggerty
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