- Racist clip showed Barack and Michelle Obama depicted as apes
- Video was shared on Donald Trump’s Truth Social account
- White House first called backlash “fake outrage”
- Senator Tim Scott condemned it as “the most racist thing I've seen out of this White House”
- Obama said public “shame” and “decorum” in politics has been lost
Former US president Barack Obama indirectly addressed a racist video shared on president Donald Trump’s social media account, saying that the 'shame' and 'decorum' that once guided public officials appears to have eroded.
The offensive clip, posted on Trump’s Truth Social platform, included an image depicting Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as apes. The segment was set to the song The Lion Sleeps Tonight and appeared at the end of a longer video repeating unfounded claims about voter fraud in the 2020 election.
The post quickly drew widespread criticism from both Democrats and Republicans. The White House initially defended the content, dismissing the backlash as “fake outrage.” The video was later deleted, with officials attributing the post to a staff member.
Trump told reporters he “didn’t see” the portion of the video that showed the Obamas depicted as apes. When asked whether he planned to apologize, he responded: “I didn't make a mistake.”
Obama addressed the broader issue during a 47-minute interview released Saturday with liberal podcaster Brian Tyler Cohen. At the start of the episode, Cohen asked Obama to comment on the state of political discourse in the United States, noting that it “has devolved to a level of cruelty that we haven't seen before.” Cohen referenced the White House’s description of some Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainees as “domestic terrorists” and added, “just days ago, Donald Trump put a picture of you, your face, on an ape's body.”
In response, Obama did not mention Trump by name but reflected on the tone of public life. “It's important to recognise that the majority of the American people find this behaviour deeply troubling,” he said.
“It is true that it gets attention. It's true that it's a distraction.”
The imagery in the clip echoed long-standing racist caricatures comparing Black people to monkeys, a trope widely condemned as dehumanizing. The segment is believed to have originated from an October post on X by a conservative meme creator.
Despite the controversy, Obama emphasized that his travels across the country have shown him a different side of the American public. He said he continues to meet people who “still believe in decency, courtesy, kindness.”
“There's this sort of clown show that's happening in social media and on television,” he continued.
“And what is true is that there doesn't seem to be any shame about this among people who used to feel like you had to have some sort of decorum and a sense of propriety and respect for the office, right?
“That's been lost.”
Among Republican critics of the post was Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, the only Black Republican in the Senate, who called it “the most racist thing I've seen out of this White House.”
During the wide-ranging interview, Obama also discussed peaceful protests against immigration enforcement operations, electoral redistricting, and progress on his presidential library, which is scheduled to open in Chicago next year.
