Trump won't apologize for video of Obamas as apes: What he said
Trump talks Iran, Truth Social post, & more on AF1
President Trump spoke to members of the media aboard Air Force One while on his way to Florida. He spoke about the now-deleted Truth Social post, the Dow hitting 50K, Iran, and more. Trump is spending Super Bowl weekend at Mar-a-Lago.
President Donald Trump says he won’t apologize and "didn’t make a mistake" when his Truth Social account shared a video featuring the Obamas as primates in a jungle.
The video, shared on Trump’s account at 11:44 p.m. ET Thursday, was deleted Friday after widespread criticism from both Democrats and Republicans. Here’s the latest:
What does the video show?
What we know:
The video shared on Trump’s social media discussed conspiracy theories about the 2020 election. Near the end of the video, a short clip of the Obamas portrayed as apes is spliced in with "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" playing in the background.
The short clip appears to be part of a longer, AI-generated video shared in October on X called "President Trump: King of the Jungle." The longer video shows other Democrats depicted as various animals, like former President Joe Biden and former Vice President Kamala Harris as zebras. Trump was shown as a lion, and the video ended with the animals bowing down to him.
What we don't know:
Former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama have not yet responded publicly to Trump's post.
FILE: U.S. President Barack Obama, from right, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, U.S. First Lady-elect Melania Trump, and U.S. First Lady Michelle Obama, outside of the White House ahead of the 58th presidential inauguration in Washington, D.C., U.S
Why you should care:
Historians say the comparison of Black people to apes is a racist practice that dates back to the 18th century.
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"Historical racist images and books dehumanizing African Americans in the 19th and early 20th century relied heavily on the Negro-ape metaphor, which was used to stereotype Blacks as lazy, dim and aggressive," said Phillip Atiba Solomon, the lead author of a 2008 study about the connection between discrimination and comparing Black people to apes. "Such dehumanization and animal imagery have been used for centuries to justify violence against many oppressed groups."
Obama, as a candidate and the country's first Black president, was sometimes featured as a primate on T-shirts and other merchandise.
Trump: ‘I didn’t make a mistake’
What they're saying:
Trump was asked about the post Friday night while speaking to reporters on Air Force One .
Trump said he had only seen the "first part" of the video and claimed he didn’t know the video included offensive footage.
"I didn't see the whole thing. I guess toward the end of it, there was some kind of a picture that people don't like, I wouldn't like it either," Trump said. He claimed his staff usually vet the content posted to his social media accounts, but said "somebody didn't" this time.
Asked if he would apologize, Trump said, "No. I didn’t make a mistake."
Dig deeper:
Trump told reporters "we took it down as soon as we found out about it," but that’s not true. The post remained online for hours after the White House initially dismissed widespread criticism as "fake outrage."
"This is from an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from the Lion King," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement Friday morning.
"Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public," Leavitt added.
Later Friday, following bipartisan backlash, the White House said "a White House staffer erroneously made the post" and "it has been taken down."
Bipartisan backlash
The other side:
The post drew swift backlash from both Democrats and members of Trump’s own Republican party. U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, a South Carolina Republican, called it "the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House."
Another GOP senator, Pete Ricketts of Nebraska, also called for the post to be taken down.
"Even if this was a Lion King meme, a reasonable person sees the racist context to this," Ricketts posted. "The White House should do what anyone does when they make a mistake: remove this and apologize."
Republican Rep. Mike Lawler of New York called it "wrong and incredibly offensive."
Even after it was deleted, Republicans continued to condemn the post.
"The post was blatantly racist and inexcusable," Sen. John Curtis, a Utah Republican, said on X. "It should never have been posted or left published for so long."
The Source: This report includes comments from President Trump and information from Trump’s Truth Social Account, politicians’ posts on X, The White House, The New York Times, Axios, Phillip Atiba Solomon and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. The Associated Press contributed.