By Gloria Nosa
The White House has reacted to mounting criticism after US President Donald Trump shared a video on his Truth Social platform that included imagery portraying former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as apes.
The 62-second clip, which centres on claims of irregularities involving voting machines during the 2020 US presidential election, briefly shows the Obamas’ faces digitally superimposed on the bodies of apes near the end of the video. The scene lasts for roughly one second and plays alongside the song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.” A watermark identifying X user @XERIAS_X, a pro-Trump account, appears over the footage.
The post quickly sparked outrage from political leaders and commentators, with critics pointing out that depicting Black public figures as primates has long been linked to racist stereotypes. Barack Obama was the first Black president of the United States.
California Governor Gavin Newsom condemned the post, describing it as “disgusting behavior by the President,” and called on Republicans to publicly denounce it.
The anti-Trump group Republicans Against Trump also criticised the video, saying the post demonstrated that “there’s no bottom” to Trump’s conduct.
In response, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed the criticism but did not directly address accusations that the imagery carried racist undertones. In a statement to Newsweek, she said the clip originated from an internet meme portraying Trump as the “King of the Jungle” while Democrats were depicted as characters inspired by The Lion King.
“This is fake outrage,” Leavitt said, urging the media to focus on issues she said were more important to the American public.
She also shared a longer version of the video originally posted in October by the same X account. That extended clip shows a range of political figures and celebrities represented as animals, with Trump depicted as a lion. Other portrayals reportedly include Vice President Kamala Harris as a tortoise, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries as a meerkat, and actress Whoopi Goldberg as a hippopotamus.
Trump’s online activity has frequently attracted controversy. He was banned from Facebook and Twitter, now known as X, in 2021 following the January 6 attack on the US Capitol. He later launched Truth Social, while his Facebook and X accounts were eventually restored.
The video was posted alongside renewed claims by Trump disputing the outcome of the 2020 election, which he lost to President Joe Biden. Biden previously served as Obama’s vice president between 2009 and 2017. Trump had won the presidency in 2017 after defeating Hillary Clinton.
The clip features Phil Waldron, identified as a cybersecurity expert, who alleges that vote counting in several key states was halted simultaneously and claims that voting machines were used to manipulate results. He further claims that when counting resumed, there was a surge in votes favouring Biden—assertions that have been repeatedly rejected by election officials and courts.
Trump shared the video twice on Truth Social. The Obamas appear only at the end of the footage, depicted as AI-generated apes dancing to “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” a song widely associated with Disney’s The Lion King.
The video has continued to draw widespread condemnation online, with many accusing the president of promoting racist imagery. The White House, however, has maintained that the backlash is exaggerated and politically motivated.
