President Donald Trump deleted a social media post depicting former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as primates after a wave of condemnation from Republicans and Democrats alike, marking a rare reversal by the White House following criticism that the content was racist and demeaning.
The post, shared late Thursday on Trump’s Truth Social account, was removed Friday after mounting pressure from civil rights leaders, senior Republican lawmakers and members of the public. The White House said the video had been uploaded by a staff member in error, a clarification that came hours after press secretary Karoline Leavitt initially dismissed the reaction as “fake outrage.”
The deletion represented an unusual acknowledgment of a mistake from an administration that has often brushed aside criticism of the president’s online rhetoric. The White House said the content was taken down once concerns were raised, emphasizing that Trump himself did not intend to share it.
The video appeared amid a burst of overnight Truth Social posts in which Trump again amplified false claims that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him, assertions that have been rejected by courts nationwide and by his own attorney general during Trump’s first term. The now-deleted clip included a brief sequence showing two primates with the smiling faces of the Obamas digitally imposed.
The post resurfaced longstanding criticism of Trump’s language and imagery involving the Obamas, particularly given the United States’ history of racist depictions equating Black Americans with animals. The timing intensified the backlash: the post appeared during the first week of Black History Month and only days after Trump issued a proclamation praising “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 had no response to the incident.
Leavitt said the footage originated from what she described as an internet meme portraying Trump as the “King of the Jungle” and Democratic leaders as animated animal characters. She said the video drew from a conservative production alleging manipulation of voting machines during the 2020 election count. At roughly the 60-second mark, a short segment showed two primates bearing the Obamas’ faces.
“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 in a text message to reporters, urging the media to focus on “something today that actually matters to the American public.”
By midday Friday, the post had been removed, with the White House attributing responsibility to a subordinate. The explanation raised new questions about oversight of Trump’s social media accounts, which have been used not only for political commentary but also to announce policy decisions, threaten military action, outline trade measures and single out political opponents. The administration did not immediately explain how posts are vetted or how the public can distinguish between content written personally by the president and material uploaded by staff.
Mark Burns, a pastor and prominent Black supporter of Trump, said on X that he spoke directly with the president about the post and urged him to fire the staffer responsible and publicly denounce the content. “He knows this is wrong, offensive, and unacceptable,” Burns wrote.
Condemnation of the post cut across party lines. Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the only Black Republican in the U.S. Senate and chair of the Senate GOP’s campaign arm, called on Trump to remove it. “Praying it was fake because it’s the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House,” Scott wrote.
Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi, who represents the state with the nation’s highest percentage of Black residents, called the post “totally unacceptable” and said the president should apologize. Several Republicans facing competitive reelection campaigns also voiced concern, reflecting an uncommon burst of intraparty criticism directed at Trump.
Civil rights leaders were more direct. The Rev. Bernice King, daughter of Martin Luther King Jr., invoked her father’s words in a social media post affirming Black dignity and humanity. “We are not apes,” she wrote, emphasizing the contributions and diversity of Black Americans.
NAACP President Derrick Johnson described the video as “blatantly racist, disgusting, and utterly despicable,” arguing that Trump was seeking to divert attention from economic pressures and renewed scrutiny of the Jeffrey Epstein case files. “You know who isn’t in the Epstein files? Barack Obama,” Johnson said. “You know who actually improved the economy as president? Barack Obama.”
The controversy reignited debate over Trump’s long record of racially charged rhetoric. During his political rise, Trump promoted the false claim that Obama, who was born in Hawaii, was secretly born in Kenya and therefore ineligible to serve as president. Obama eventually released his birth records, and Trump later acknowledged Obama’s U.S. birth during the 2016 campaign, while falsely claiming that Hillary Clinton had started the “birther” conspiracy.
As president during his first term, Trump referred to several predominantly Black developing nations as “shithole countries,” a remark he initially denied but later acknowledged in December 2025. During his 2024 campaign, Trump said immigrants were “poisoning the blood of our country,” language historians have compared to rhetoric used in authoritarian regimes to dehumanize minorities.
Scholars note that associating Black people with animals has deep roots in American and European racism, dating back to the 18th century, when pseudo-scientific theories were used to justify slavery and later segregation. Obama himself was repeatedly depicted as a monkey or ape in merchandise and online images during his presidency, a practice widely condemned by historians and civil rights advocates as racist propaganda.
Despite the White House’s attempt to frame the episode as an error by a staffer, critics said the incident underscores broader concerns about the tone and content of Trump’s communications and the normalization of inflammatory imagery in political discourse. Supporters, meanwhile, echoed the administration’s argument that the outrage was exaggerated and politically motivated.
As of Friday afternoon, President Donald Trump had not personally commented on the deleted post or issued an apology. The White House maintained that the matter was closed, even as questions persisted about accountability, oversight and the broader implications for race, politics and presidential conduct in the digital age.
The Associated Press
