By Trevor Hunnicutt and Steve Holland
WASHINGTON, Feb 6 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump condemned but did not apologize for a video on his social media account depicting Democratic former President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama as apes, a post that triggered swift, bipartisan criticism for dehumanizing people of African descent.
The White House first defended the racist post on Friday, then deleted it 12 hours after it appeared.
The minute-long video shared on Trump’s Truth Social network late Thursday amplified false claims that his 2020 election defeat was the result of fraud. Spliced into the video near its end was a brief, apparently AI-generated, clip of dancing primates superimposed with the Obamas’ heads.
HISTORY OF PROMOTING RACIST RHETORIC
On Friday night, Trump told reporters he had not watched the entire video before a White House aide posted it to his account.
“I didn’t see the whole thing,” Trump said. “I looked at the first part, and it was really about voter fraud in the machines, how crooked it is, how disgusting it is. Then I gave it to the people. Generally, they look at the whole thing. But I guess somebody didn’t.”
Asked by reporters if he condemned the clip, Trump said, “Of course I do.” But he declined to apologize, saying, “I didn’t make a mistake. I mean, I give – I look at a lot – thousands of things.”
Trump’s comments capped a day of competing narratives within the White House. An administration spokesperson initially defended the video as a harmless “internet meme” before another official said it had been posted in error and was removed, marking a rare retreat for a White House typically unflinching in defending Trump.
Trump, who is in his second term, has a history of sharing racist rhetoric. He long promoted the false conspiracy theory that Obama, the president from 2009 to 2017, was not born in the United States.
The post depicting the Obamas drew criticism from Democrats and some Republicans, including Republican Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, a close Trump ally who is Black.
“Praying it was fake because it’s the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House,” Scott said on X. “The President should remove it.”
Other lawmakers in Trump’s Republican Party called on him to apologize and delete the post. Some also privately contacted the White House about the video, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Mark Burns, a Black pastor and Trump ally who said he spoke to the president about the video on Friday, called for the staff member to be fired.
White supremacists have for centuries depicted people of African ancestry as monkeys or apes as part of campaigns to dehumanize and dominate Black populations.
“Let it haunt Trump and his racist followers that future Americans will embrace the Obamas as beloved figures while studying him as a stain on our history,” said Ben Rhodes, a former Obama aide, on X.
A spokesperson for the Obamas declined to comment.
WHITE HOUSE DEFENDS, THEN DELETES, POST
Only a few senior aides have direct access to Trump’s social media account, according to a Trump adviser and a person familiar with White House process. Trump and White House officials declined to identify the staffer who posted the video.
Before the post was deleted on Friday, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt defended it and described the wave of negative reactions as “fake outrage.”
Leavitt said it was “from an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from the Lion King.” Trump’s clip included a song used in that Disney musical.
But as criticism mounted, a White House official said the post had been taken down. “A White House staffer erroneously made the post,” the official said.
A Trump adviser said the president had not seen the video before it was posted late on Thursday and ordered it removed once he had.
Both officials declined to be named.
Trump told reporters Friday night that the video had some images at the end that “people don’t like.”
“I wouldn’t like it either,” he said.
Trump has long used social media to unveil policy, weigh in on issues and share fan-generated content to his nearly 12 million followers on Truth Social, a platform owned by his Trump Media & Technology Group.
Thursday’s post raised questions about the protocols used around Trump’s social media communications, which can move markets and provoke adversaries.
Trump has criticized his Democratic predecessor, Joe Biden, for not tightly controlling the presidential memoranda distributed under his name and signed by “autopen.”
In December, Trump described Somalis as “garbage” who should be thrown out of the country. He has referred to that and other developing nations as “shithole countries.” He was criticized last year for depicting House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, who is Black, with a superimposed handlebar mustache and a sombrero.
Civil rights advocates say Trump’s rhetoric has become increasingly bold, normalized and politically permissible.
“Donald Trump’s video is blatantly racist, disgusting, and utterly despicable,” said Derrick Johnson, national president of the NAACP, a civil rights group, in an emailed statement. “Voters are watching and will remember this at the ballot box.”
(Reporting by Trevor Hunnicutt and Steve Holland; Additional reporting by Bo Erickson, Andrea Shalal and Kat Stafford; Editing by Colleen Jenkins, Daniel Wallis and William Mallard)
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