President Donald Trump has deleted a video from his Truth Social account that depicted former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as monkeys, following criticism from Democrats and several Republicans who said the post was racist and offensive.
The video, which Trump shared earlier this week, repeated false claims that the 2020 presidential election was rigged. Near the end of the roughly one-minute clip, it cut to an animated segment showing the Obamas portrayed as monkeys dancing to the song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” popularized by the Disney film The Lion King.
Depicting Black people as monkeys or apes is a centuries-old racist trope, and the imagery prompted swift backlash from civil rights advocates and lawmakers.
Before Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina publicly criticized the post, the White House sought to dismiss the controversy. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the clip was taken from a longer internet meme video that portrayed Trump as the “Lion King” and cast leading Democrats as jungle animals.
Among those shown in the longer video were Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Sen. Adam Schiff of California, depicted as an elephant, boar, meerkat and giraffe, respectively, all longtime political rivals of the president. However, none of those figures appeared in the version of the video Trump shared on his social media account.
“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 in a statement. “Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public.”
The explanation did little to stem criticism. Scott, a longtime Trump ally and the only Black Republican in the Senate, said the post crossed a line. He was joined by Republican Sens. Roger Wicker of Mississippi and Pete Ricketts of Nebraska, who urged the president to take the video down.
“Even if this was a Lion King meme, a reasonable person sees the racist context to this,” Ricketts wrote on X. “The White House should do what anyone does when they make a mistake: remove this and apologize.”
Rep. Mike Lawler, a Republican from New York, also condemned the post.
“The President’s post is wrong and incredibly offensive, whether intentional or a mistake, and should be deleted immediately with an apology offered,” Lawler wrote on X.
Following the growing bipartisan backlash, the video was removed from Trump’s account. In a statement sent from an unsigned White House press email, an administration official confirmed the post had been deleted and said it had been uploaded by an unidentified staff member to the president’s social media account.
The Obama Foundation did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Trump has frequently courted controversy through his use of social media, often amplifying conspiracy theories or attacking political opponents. In September, he shared a vulgar, AI-generated deepfake video that included House Minority Leader Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, depicting Jeffries wearing a sombrero while speaking to reporters.
“Bigotry will get you nowhere,” Jeffries wrote on X at the time.
The episode underscores the continued role of provocative and racially charged content in Trump’s online messaging, even as he seeks to broaden support ahead of the 2026 political cycle.
