Donald Trump shares racist video that shows Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama as primates | WORLD

President Donald Trump used his social media account to share a video about election conspiracy theories that includes a racist depiction of the former president. Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle Obama, as primates in a jungle

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt rejected criticism of the publication about the Obamawho are Democrats. A spokesman for Obama did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.

Almost the entire 62 second clipwhich was one of dozens of Trump’s Truth Social posts overnight, appears to be from a conservative video alleging deliberate manipulation of the voting machines in key states as 2020 presidential votes were counted. At the 60th second a quick scene of two primates appears, with the Obamas’ smiling faces superimposed.

The images were taken from a longer video, previously circulated by an influential right-wing meme creator. Shows Trump as the “King of the Jungle” and depicts a variety of Democratic leaders as animals, including Joe Biden, who is white, as a primate eating a banana.

“This is from an internet meme video that represents the President Trump as King of the Jungle and Democrats like characters from The Lion King,” Leavitt said by text message, referring to the 1994 Disney film. “Please stop with the false outrage and report on something that really matters to the American public today.”

Trump did not comment on the video in his post.

The group Republicans Against Trump, a frequent critic of the president on social media, criticized the post and its “racist image”.

“There is no limit to his baseness,” the group wrote.

Trump and the official White House social media accounts They frequently repeat memes and videos generated by artificial intelligence. As Leavitt did on Friday, Trump supporters often dismiss the criticism and present the images as humorous.

Trump also has a long history of intensely personal criticism of the Obamas and using racist rhetoric.

In his 2024 campaign, Trump declared that immigrants were “poisoning the blood of our country.”” language similar to that which Adolf Hitler used to dehumanize Jews in Nazi Germany.

 

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During his first term in the White House, Trump referred to a number of developing nations, mostly African, as “shithole countries.” He initially denied using the slur, but admitted in December 2025 that he said it.

When Obama was in the White HouseTrump promoted false claims that the 44th president, who was born in Hawaii, was born in Kenya and was constitutionally ineligible to serve. Trump, in interviews that won him support from many right-wing voters, repeatedly demanded that Obama produce birth records and prove he was a “native-born citizen” as required to become president.

Obama finally released his Hawaii records. Trump finally acknowledged during his 2016 campaign, after he had won the Republican nomination, that Obama was born in Hawaii. But he immediately said, falsely, that his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton was the one who started those attacks against Obama.