The president of the United States, Donald Trump, has shared a video on his Truth Social platform in which former president Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle, appear portrayed as monkeys. The White House has downplayed the issue, although the video was deleted a few hours later.
However, the president has assured that he is not going to apologize for this fact, because, in his opinion, he has not made “any mistake.” Furthermore, he has indicated that he is not going to fire the person who made the video and that he has not seen it in its entirety, he only “gave it to people” so they could share it. “I just watched the first part and it was about election fraud and the machines, how corrupt they are, how disgusting they are,” he told the media in statements from Air Force One.
The White House classifies the criticism as “false indignation”
The image of the Obamas appears in one of the many videos that the American president usually shares on his social network, most of them conspiratorial in tone. Although most of the video deals with the manipulation of the 2020 elections that Trump has been denouncing since then, at the 59th second a short animation appears showing the faces of the Obama couple on two apes.
The video is attributed to the ultraconservative portal Patriot Noew Outlet and the animation to the X user xerias_x, who on his account has celebrated its reproduction. This was generated with artificial intelligence and is part of a longer fragment called: “Trump: King of the Jungle”. Additionally, the song ‘The lion sleeps tonight’ plays in the background.
Although the White House has attributed its publication to an official’s error, according to CNN, press secretary Karoline Leavitt has downplayed what happened and has pointed out that the criticism is only a show of “false indignation.” “Please, let’s put an end to the false outrage and let’s report on things that really matter to the American public,” he said.
Criticism even within the Republican Party
Although, the publication has generated criticism even within the Republican Party, as is the case of the black senator from South Carolina Tim Scott, who has shown his indignation in his X profile. “I am praying that it is false, because it is the most racist thing I have seen come out of the White House. The president should eliminate it.”
From the Democratic Party, criticism has not been expected. The leader in the Senate, Chuck Summer, has called him “racist, vile and aberrant”, while the party leader in the House of Representatives, Hakeem Jeffries, has called Trump “unhinged and evil” and the Obamas as two “brilliant, compassionate and patriotic Americans.”
