Trump Shares Video Depicting Obamas as Apes, Faces Criticism
A late-night post from President Donald Trump’s Truth Social account has stirred widespread criticism after a video shared on the platform briefly depicted former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as apes. The clip, posted shortly before midnight ET, has reignited debate about political rhetoric, race, and the role of social media in modern campaigns.
The 62-second video focused largely on voting machines and election claims. Yet in its final second, the faces of the Obamas appeared superimposed onto ape bodies while the song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” by The Tokens played in the background. The imagery carried a watermark reading @XERIAS_X, an X account that supports Trump and has approximately 46,000 followers.
Given that most of the video centered on election-related claims, it remains unclear whether Trump viewed the entire clip before it was shared or was aware of the image shown at the end.
What the Video Contained
Instagram | barackobama | A late-night post by Trump featuring a video depicting the Obamas as apes has sparked intense backlash.
The clip appears to have originated from a website known as Patriot News Outlet. It claimed that Michigan officials had accessed voting tabulators, suggesting possible election interference. These assertions align with Trump’s ongoing claims that the 2020 presidential election was affected by fraud, despite a lack of verified evidence supporting those allegations.
The video’s final moment drew the strongest reaction. The Obamas, both Democrats, were briefly shown in a manner widely criticized as racist. The imagery echoed harmful stereotypes that have long been condemned in American public life.
Why This Matters
Online political discourse has grown increasingly polarized in recent years. Incidents like this fuel ongoing discussions about the limits of free speech and the spread of offensive or inflammatory content online.
Trump has frequently criticized Barack Obama during his presidency and beyond. In July, Trump accused Obama of “treason” following a report released by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. The report alleged that Obama and members of his administration manufactured intelligence regarding Russian interference in the 2016 election.
Trump also reposted an AI-generated video on Truth Social showing Obama being arrested and jailed. In response, Obama’s office described the accusations as “bizarre” and said they were “ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction.”
A report from the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism (GPAHE) found that Obama experienced a surge in online death threats following those accusations. At the time, White House spokesperson Davis Ingle told Newsweek that Trump and his administration “strongly condemn all forms of violence.”
Past Criticism and Public Statements
Trump has also targeted Obama’s 2009 Nobel Peace Prize. While discussing his own unsuccessful effort to receive the award, Trump said in October: “He got elected and they gave it to Obama for doing absolutely nothing but destroying out country.”
Meanwhile, Trump’s social media activity has drawn scrutiny before. In 2021, he was banned from Facebook and Twitter—now known as X—after supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. That suspension led to the launch of Truth Social. His accounts on Facebook and X were later reinstated.
Public Reaction on X
Instagram | lamag | Leavitt dismissed the imagery backlash without addressing the specific allegations of racism.
The video quickly circulated on X, where several public figures condemned the content.
Harry Sisson, a liberal social media influencer with more than 374,000 followers, called the post “incredibly racist and disgusting.”
Former professional tennis player Martina Navratilova wrote: “Both Michelle and Barack have the IQ twice as high as trump if not more and he posts this racist s***????”
Ben Rhodes, a former Obama administration staffer and co-host of the foreign policy podcast “Pod Save the World,” posted: “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.”
California Governor Gavin Newsom described the video as “Disgusting behavior by the President,” adding, “Every single Republican must denounce this. Now.”
The X account Republicans against Trump stated: “Trump just posted a video on Truth Social that includes a racist image of Barack and Michelle Obama as monkeys. There’s no bottom.”
White House Response
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt addressed the controversy early Friday in a statement shared with Newsweek. She dismissed the backlash but did not directly respond to claims that the imagery reflected racist tropes.
“This is from an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from the Lion King,” Leavitt said. “Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public.”
Leavitt also shared a 55-second video originally posted by the @XERIAS_X account in October. In that version, “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” plays as several politicians and celebrities appear as wild animals. Former Vice President Kamala Harris is portrayed as a tortoise, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries as a meerkat, and Whoopi Goldberg as a hippopotamus. Trump appears as a lion.
Online platforms now sit at the center of political messaging. Leaders use social media to speak directly to supporters and counter critics in real time. Yet viral posts—especially those seen as offensive—can quickly intensify division and spark national backlash.
The reposted video illustrates how a single clip can shift into a broader debate about race, political speech, and accountability. Public reactions from elected officials, commentators, and advocacy groups show how rapidly digital content can move from one platform to the national stage, drawing sharp scrutiny over what is shared and why.