USA TODAY reported on an unintended Black History Month promotion from President Donald J. Trump, who continues to angle for a repeat White Man Of The Year honor.
‘I didn’t make a mistake’ Trump says of post depicting Obamas as apes
“I look at a lot of, thousands, of things,” Trump said of the video. “And I looked at the beginning of it, it was fine.”
By Zac Anderson, USA TODAY
President Donald Trump declined to apologize for sharing a video depicting former President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama as apes, telling reporters “I didn’t make a mistake.”
Trump told reporters while traveling on Air Force One to Florida on Feb. 6 that he only looked at the beginning of the roughly one-minute long video, which starts off talking about unsubstantiated voter fraud claims regarding the 2020 election, and didn’t see the portion with the Obamas that has been widely condemned as racist.
“I just looked at the first part... I didn’t see the whole thing,” Trump said, indicating he gave it to someone else to post and “somebody slipped and missed a very small part.”
“I guess probably nobody reviewed the end of it,” Trump said.
Asked about calls from GOP lawmakers for him to apologize, Trump said he didn’t plan to. He later said “of course I do” when asked if he condemned the racist part of the video.
The brief portion of the video with the Obamas appears to have been created by artificial intelligence. It depicts the bodies of two apes with the faces of the former president and first lady. Apes are flying around in the background of what appears to be a jungle.
The video was among dozens of posts on Trump’s Truth Social account in the late hours of Feb. 5 and early hours of Feb. 6. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt initially defended the Obama post, saying it was “from an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from the Lion King.”
“Please stop the fake outrage,” Leavitt added.
The White House later distanced the president from the video amid growing criticism, including from many top Republicans. A White House official said the video had been shared erroneously by an unnamed member of Trump’s staff. It was removed from Trump’s Truth Social account after being up for about 12 hours.
The video drew a strong response from Republican lawmakers, who often are reluctant to criticize the leader of their party.
Sen. Tim Scott, a close Trump ally and prominent Black Republican from South Carolina who is leading the Senate’s campaign efforts this year, wrote he was “praying it was fake because it’s the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House.”
Sen. John Curtis, R-Utah, called the post “blatantly racist and inexcusable.” Sen. Pete Ricketts, R-Nebraska, said a “reasonable person” would deem the video “racist” and called for Trump to apologize. Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Mississippi, called the video “totally unacceptable” and also said an apology is in order.
Trump said he is the “least racist president you’ve had in a long time” and that “I’ve been great” for Black voters, pointing to criminal justice reform and other policies.
The president earlier this year was accused of racism by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries for sharing a controversial deepfake video of the lawmaker wearing a sombrero hat with mariachi music playing.
Jeffries again slammed Trump as a racist after the video post depicting the Obamas as apes.
“This guy is an unhinged bottom feeder,” Jeffries said in a video posted on social media
Contributing: Joey Garrison, Melina Khan
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