A Truth Social video “unintentionally” shared by President Donald J. Trump portrayed former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama as apes. Trump, for his part, has claimed the post was unintentionally shared but has refused to apologize– an example of how comfortable the administration is with blatant racism.
The majority of the post made by Trump was a video about the 2020 voter fraud conspiracy that the president continues to peddle, however at the end a short clip displays the Obama’s as apes. Karoline Leavitt on Fox News pointed fingers at a White House staffer, saying what they shared was a “Lion King” meme that had previously been circulating.
Trump later denied that it was a staffer, saying he’d seen it but not until the end explaining that he was surprised no one had caught it.
The fact that the ending was not the intended message has been their scapegoat as President Trump stated aboard Air Force One in a press release on Feb. 6, 2026 “…I didn’t see the whole thing I guess during the end of it there was some kind of a picture of people don’t like– I wouldn’t like it either. But I didn’t see it I just I looked at the first part and it was really about voter fraud in and and the machines how crooked it is how disgusting it is.” He then went on his usual ramble of how no one wants to talk about this already disproven conspiracy.
However this post sparked much outrage on both sides of the aisle. “Praying it was fake because it’s the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House,” wrote Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) in a Feb. 6 post on X.
Now though I agree the post is racist I hate to break it to the senator but coming from the man who opened the first debate of his third run for president by saying that Haitians were eating cats and dogs, I’d have to say that this administration had never hidden their racism.
Trump had dinner with known Neo-Nazi and white supremist Nick Fuentes at Mar-a-logo back in November of 2022.
His pick for State Department role assistant secretary of state Jeremy Carl is on record written and spoken on several times advocating against “anti-white racism” as he puts it in a spectatorTV interview posted June 14, 2024, where he discussed the oppression and racism faced by “whites.”
When going down the MAGAsphere, it’s an echo chamber of being told various things and you just have to sit and wonder how or why people end up there.
To be clear racism was never eradicated – it’s always around – but when you have the President of the United States playing instances like these off as a meme or just an accident that he has no need to apologize for because he took it down it adds to the echoes the everyday individual hears.
It gives way for people to feel comfortable with the hate amplified in their hearts because someone in power has said what was bouncing around their mind.
The Department of Justice Reports on Hate crimes show a steady increase as of their most recent release for 2024 published Sept. 25, 2025 gives way to a small decrease in overall instances 2023 but is still greater that of years prior to 2023.
“… When you have a person in office and they’re showing their true color and they’re showing their racist personality and also systematically it’s like it allows other groups of people to think that way too to think that they.. have the power to attack other active communities and it’s not right,” said Brown Issue President Maurisio Diaz’s response when asked about this administration’s revamp of racism.
It is not a joke to portray the only Black President and his wife as apes. It is an attack, one that cannot be swept under a rug by saying it was an accident. The defense of this action will only give way to desensitization of harmful rhetoric.
“…I’m not saying activism died,” said Diaz. “No, it hasn’t but I feel like it needs to have more power than it has now.. example this past few weeks I see multiple walkouts from schools and multiple marches and stuff like that but it’s just like it shouldn’t be a one time thing. It’s like we should continue having these conversations, continue having those walk outs, continue having those marches because if we don’t if we just let all of this go and not hold anybody accountable it’s like real change won’t come to us we have to fight for the real change.”
Holding people in power accountable can not die out, America only works if we hold our government accountable for what they say and do. This is not just about a post, this is about the safety and peace of mind knowing that there are consequences for blatant racism and the diminishment of ethnic communities.
We are not going to be small under the president’s boot like others. It is important that we are louder than a humorless meme.
