Trump shares video containing racist depiction of the Obamas

WASHINGTON (JN) – President Donald Trump shared a video on his Truth Social account that briefly depicts former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as primates, drawing swift criticism from political opponents and civil rights advocates. The post, shared late Thursday, was part of a wider stream of messages in which Trump repeated false claims that the 2020 U.S. election was stolen from him.

The White House defended the post as a reference to an internet meme portraying Trump as a “King of the Jungle,” dismissing the backlash as misplaced. Critics said the imagery crossed a line by invoking racist tropes long used to dehumanize Black people, particularly the nation’s first Black president and first lady.

The episode adds to a pattern of Trump’s social media activity in which memes, edited videos, and provocative imagery are frequently shared alongside political messaging. It also revives scrutiny of Trump’s history of personal attacks against the Obamas and his continued efforts to dispute the legitimacy of the 2020 election result, despite repeated court rulings and official findings to the contrary.

The video and its content

The 62-second clip, reposted by Trump among dozens of overnight messages, largely features a conservative video alleging tampering with voting machines during the 2020 vote count in key battleground states. Those claims have been repeatedly rejected by courts, election officials from both parties, and Trump’s own attorney general during his first term.

Near the end of the video, a brief sequence shows two primates with the smiling faces of Barack and Michelle Obama digitally superimposed. The footage appears to have been lifted from a longer meme video that has circulated online among conservative social media users, portraying Trump as a jungle ruler and various Democratic figures as animals.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a text message that the clip was part of a broader meme depicting Trump as the “King of the Jungle” and Democrats as characters from Disney’s The Lion King. “Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public,” she said.

Trump did not add commentary to the video when sharing it.

Reaction from critics and political groups

The post quickly drew condemnation from political opponents and advocacy groups, who described the imagery as racist and offensive. Republicans Against Trump, a group of conservative critics of the president, wrote on social media that the post included a “racist image” and said, “There’s no bottom.”

An Obama spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Civil rights scholars and historians have long documented how comparing Black people to primates has been used as a dehumanizing racist trope for centuries. The depiction of the Obamas in that manner struck many critics as particularly egregious given their historic roles as the first Black occupants of the White House.

Trump’s use of memes and incendiary rhetoric

Trump and official White House social media accounts frequently repost memes, digitally altered videos, and AI-generated imagery. Aides often frame such content as humor or political satire when faced with criticism.

The latest episode also revived attention to Trump’s history of personal and sometimes racially charged rhetoric directed at the Obamas and other political figures.

During his first presidential campaign and presidency, Trump promoted the false claim that Obama was not born in the United States, a conspiracy theory widely known as “birtherism.” Obama released his Hawaii birth certificate in response. Trump later acknowledged Obama was born in Hawaii but falsely claimed that Democrat Hillary Clinton had initiated the conspiracy.

In his 2024 campaign, Trump used language about immigrants “poisoning the blood of our country,” a phrase that historians noted echoed rhetoric used in Nazi Germany to dehumanize Jews. During his first term, Trump also referred to several majority-Black nations as “shithole countries,” remarks he initially denied but later admitted making.

Continued focus on the 2020 election

The video Trump shared centered largely on allegations of deliberate manipulation of voting machines during the 2020 election. Those claims have been extensively litigated and rejected. Dozens of court cases filed by Trump’s campaign and allies were dismissed for lack of evidence. Federal and state election officials, including Republicans, repeatedly affirmed the integrity of the vote.

Former Attorney General William Barr, who served during Trump’s first term, publicly stated that the Justice Department found no evidence of widespread fraud that would have changed the election outcome.

Despite those findings, Trump has continued to use his social media platform to amplify content that questions the legitimacy of the result.

Broader implications

The controversy highlights how social media posts by political leaders can quickly become flashpoints in an already polarized environment. It also underscores the ongoing role of memes, edited videos, and online culture in shaping political discourse.

For critics, the issue was not only the election claims but the imagery used to convey them. For the White House, the focus was on dismissing the reaction as overblown and redirecting attention to other policy matters.

The exchange reflects a broader pattern in which Trump’s digital communication style blends political messaging, internet culture, and provocation, often prompting debate over where satire ends and offense begins.