(CNN) — President Donald Trump shared a racist video on his social media platform Thursday night that depicted former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama as apes in a jungle, then removed it hours later amid bipartisan outrage, including from a close ally.
Just before noon, the White House blamed a staffer for the video posted to Trump’s Truth Social account and said the post had been removed. The statement came after serious backlash, including from GOP Sen. Tim Scott, the only Black Republican in the Senate, who called the post racist and said Trump should remove it.
“Praying it was fake because it’s the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House. The President should remove it,” the South Carolina Republican, who’s also the chair of the Senate GOP campaign committee, wrote on X.
The White House had earlier downplayed the response to the video, calling it “fake outrage.” But just before noon, an official told CNN, “A White House staffer erroneously made the post. It has been taken down.” By that time, the video had been up for nearly 12 hours.
The Obamas briefly and suddenly appear near the end of the short video, which promotes false claims that voting machines helped steal the 2020 election, with their faces superimposed onto the bodies of apes. As the images appear, for about one second, the start of the song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” plays in the background.
The post, which recalls the racist trope of comparing Black people with monkeys, prompted swift backlash.
Rep. Mike Lawler of New York, who is considered one of the most vulnerable Republicans in Congress, also condemned the Truth Social post and called on Trump to apologize.
“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.
In a statement to CNN on Friday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called the broader response to the video “fake outrage.”
“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. “Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public.”
CNN has reached out to the Obamas for comment.
The office of California Gov. Gavin Newsom condemned the video in a post on X, writing: “Disgusting behavior by the President. Every single Republican must denounce this. Now.”
The incident is the latest example of Trump drawing criticism for sharing racist content on his social media platform.
Last year, the president posted an apparent AI video depicting Barack Obama being arrested in the Oval Office. Later last year, Trump and members of his administration also shared digitally altered images and videos of House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries wearing a fake mustache and a sombrero, imagery Jeffries publicly described as racist.
This headline and story have been updated with additional developments.
The-CNN-Wire
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