A video that depicted former US President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle Obama as monkeys was removed from Donald Trump’s social media account by the White House.
American lawmakers, even those in Trump’s own Republican Party, reacted negatively to the film. The BBC reports that in reaction to criticism, the White House took the post down from Trump’s account after first defending it. According to a White House official, the video was accidentally uploaded by a staff member.
Trump has denied seeing the entire video before it was made public, and ABC News Australia reports that he declined to issue an apology, saying, “I did not make a mistake.” As an example, I look at thousands of things.
A Republican senator and African American, Tim Scott, called the film “the most racist thing I have ever seen out of this White House.” The 62-second film, which makes reference to claims of voting fraud in the 2020 US presidential election, features the song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” as background music.
Along with the Obamas, it depicts other Democratic Party officials as animals, including former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, and US Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Like the Obamas, former US President Joe Biden is shown as an ape consuming a banana. The BBC claims that the
