Trump posts, deletes racist clip depicting the Obamas as apes, refuses to apologise

The United States of America’s President Donald Trump on Friday removed a racist video he had earlier posted to social media late Thursday night that depicted former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as apes, but vows he will not apologise for posting it.

In the clip, set to the song ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’ was at the end of a 62-second video he shared that contained claims about voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election.

The White House had initially defended the clip as just an "internet meme video" and told off critics to allegedly "stop the fake outrage".

During his presser with reporters on Friday, Trump said: "I didn't make a mistake", adding that he had only seen the beginning of the video before it was posted by a staff member and was unaware that it contained that depiction of the Obamas.

"I look at a lot of thousands of things," Trump defended himself, while aboard Air Force One on Friday, adding that after watching only part of the video he "gave it to the people who generally, they look at the whole thing".

There has been immense backlash since the incident both from the Democrats and Republican as well, Republican Senator Tim Scott, who is of black descent, had called for the president to remove the post, describing it as "the most racist thing I've seen out of this White House”.

Senator Scott, a South Carolina Republican and an ally of Trump, was not having any of it as he posted that he was "praying it was fake because it's the most racist thing I've seen out of this White House, the President should remove it”.

Trump posted a disgustingly racist video depicting the Obamas as apes.

Are my Republican colleagues going to continue to bend the knee to a racist, authoritarian president who wants the American people to bow down before him? pic.twitter.com/GO9h5A2ah8

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) February 6, 2026

According to CBS, the BBC's US partner, Florida representative Byron Donalds who is Trump's supporter, is running for governor had allegedly called the White House after the video was posted and was told that it was the work of a staffer who "let the president down".

Meanwhile, the Obama’s are yet to publicly comment on the racist clip, as it is now emerging that the racist video also depicts several other high-profile Democrats as animals, including New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and his immediate predecessor Joe Biden, is also depicted as an ape eating a banana.

Though the post has been taken down, massive backlash and criticism continues, with Trump being accused of racism.