WATCH | Trump condemns and won’t apologise for video depicting Obamas as apes

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 on 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.

No one believes this cover up from the White House, especially since they originally defended the post. We are all clear-eyed about who Donald Trump is and what he believes.https://t.co/RbUsqAtQzD 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.

I looked at the first part, and it was really about voter fraud in the machines, how crooked it is, and how disgusting it is. Then I gave it to the people. Generally, they look at the whole thing.

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But I guess somebody didn’t.” Asked by reporters if he condemned the clip, Trump said, “Of course I do.” But he declined to apologise, saying, “I didn’t make a mistake. I mean, I give — I look at a lot — thousands of things.” 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 legislators in Trump’s Republican Party called on him to apologise and delete the post. Some also privately contacted the White House about the video, according to a person familiar with the matter.

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