Trump Deletes ‘Racist’ Obama Monkey Video Amid Outcry

United States President Donald Trump has removed a highly controversial video from his Truth Social platform following a wave of bipartisan condemnation. The video, which surfaced late Thursday, February 5, 2026, utilized artificial intelligence to superimpose the faces of former President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama onto the bodies of monkeys. The imagery, widely denounced as a dehumanizing racist trope, sparked a firestorm of criticism that eventually forced a rare backtrack from the White House.

The one-minute clip was primarily focused on promoting debunked conspiracy theories regarding the 2020 election and Dominion Voting Systems. However, the final seconds featured the Obamas depicted as primates in a jungle setting, swaying to the song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.” In the same meme-style video, Trump was portrayed as a lion, the “King of the Jungle,” while other Democratic leaders were shown as various animals.

Initial reactions from the White House were defiant. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt originally dismissed the backlash as “fake outrage,” characterizing the post as a harmless internet meme inspired by The Lion King. She urged the media to focus on issues that “actually matter” to the American public. However, as condemnation poured in from both sides of the political aisle, the administration’s tone shifted abruptly.

The pressure reached a breaking point when high-ranking members of Trump’s own party spoke out. Senator Tim Scott, the lone Black Republican in the Senate, described the video as “the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House” and publicly prayed that the post was a fake. Fellow Republican Senators Roger Wicker and Pete Ricketts joined the chorus, calling the imagery “totally unacceptable” and demanding an immediate apology.

Democrats were equally scathing. California Governor Gavin Newsom labeled the post “disgusting behavior,” while House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries described Trump as a “vile, unhinged and malignant bottom feeder.” Civil rights organizations, including the NAACP, noted the particular cruelty of the post appearing during the first week of Black History Month, calling it a “stark reminder” of the President’s views on Black Americans.

By Friday afternoon, the video had been scrubbed from Trump’s Truth Social account. The White House issued a statement attributing the post to a “staff error,” claiming a subordinate had uploaded the content “erroneously” without the President’s prior knowledge. This rare admission of a misstep was seen by analysts as a strategic move to quell a controversy that was beginning to alienate key Republican allies.

Despite the deletion, President Trump remained unrepentant during a press gaggle on Air Force One late Friday night. While he stated that he “of course” condemns racist imagery, he refused to apologize personally, insisting he had not seen the end of the video before passing it to his staff to post. “I didn’t make a mistake,” Trump told reporters, doubling down on the election fraud claims that formed the bulk of the original video.

The incident has reignited a fierce national debate over the use of AI-generated content and the boundaries of political rhetoric. Critics argue that the hyper-realistic nature of such “deepfake” parodies makes them uniquely dangerous when used to amplify racial prejudices. While the video is gone from the President’s official page, the political fallout continues to ripple through Washington as the administration enters the second year of its second term.