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By Kate Plummer
Senior US News Reporter
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President Donald Trump has sparked online criticism after posting a video on Truth Social that contained a racist depiction of former President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama as apes.
Near the end of the 62-second video about voting machines in the 2020 presidential election, the Obamas' faces appear on the bodies of apes for about one second as the Tokens' "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" plays. A watermark from X user @XERIAS_X, a Trump-supporting account with 45,900 followers, overlays that portion of the video.
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On X, various public figures condemned the video. Harry Sisson, a liberal social media influencer with over 374,000 followers, called it "incredibly racist and disgusting."
Newsweek has contacted the White House and representatives for Obama for comment by email outside normal business hours.
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Why It Matters
Political polarization has increased in the past few years, particularly in online spaces—sparking conversations about the balance between free speech and offensive discourse. The president, whose use of social media has long drawn scrutiny, was barred from Facebook and Twitter, now X, in 2021 after his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol. In response, Trump created Truth Social, where he posts frequently. His Facebook and Twitter accounts were later reinstated.
Since taking office in January 2025, Trump and his administration have been accused of racism and bigotry amid its rollbacks of diversity, equity and inclusion programs and their efforts to carry out the largest mass deportation program in U.S. history. Trump posting a video depicting Obama, the first Black president of the United States, as an ape during Black History Month has further fanned those accusations.
What To Know
On social media, public figures denounced Trump's social media post. California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, wrote: "Disgusting behavior by the President. Every single Republican must denounce this. Now."
The Republicans Against Trump X account wrote: "Trump just posted a video on Truth Social that includes a racist image of Barack and Michelle Obama as monkeys. There's no bottom."
In July, Trump accused Obama of treason after Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, released a report alleging that the former president and members of his administration manufactured intelligence regarding Russian interference in the 2016 election. Trump also reposted an AI-generated video on Truth Social that showed Obama being arrested and put in jail.
In a statement at the time, Obama's office called the accusations bizarre, saying they were "ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction."
A report by the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism found that Obama received a surge in online death threats after the accusations. White House spokesperson Davis Ingle told Newsweek at the time that Trump and his administration "strongly condemn all forms of violence."
Trump also criticized Obama's 2009 Nobel Peace Prize award amid his own unsuccessful campaign to obtain the accolade. "He got elected, and they gave it to Obama for doing absolutely nothing but destroying our country," the president said in October.
What People Are Saying
Former professional tennis player Martina Navratilova wrote on X: "Both Michelle and Barack have the IQ twice as high as trump if not more and he posts this racist s***????"
Ben Rhodes, an Obama administration staffer and co-host of the foreign policy podcast Pod Save the World, wrote on X: "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."
What Happens Next
As of writing, Trump had not responded publicly to the criticism he received over his social media post, and Obama had not commented on the video.
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