The White House has taken down a widely criticized video posted to President Trump’s Truth Social account that featured former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama depicted as apes.
The White House, after defending it on Friday morning, said hours later that the image had been posted in error.
“A White House staffer erroneously made the post. It has been taken down,” a White House spokesperson said in a statement to The Washington Times.
The 62-second video presented a voting fraud theory seeking to expose voting machine tampering in the 2020 presidential election. It included a two-second clip depicting the Obamas as monkeys in a forest.
The image was widely condemned as racist, including by both Republicans and Democrats.
Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, the only Black Republican in the U.S. Senate and a Trump ally, labeled the video “the most racist thing” he’s seen from the administration.
“Praying it was fake because it’s the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House. The President should remove it,” Mr. Scott said on social media.
The snippet shows the Obamas’ heads pasted onto the bodies of monkeys, among other prominent Democrats, dancing and singing along to the song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” featured in the 1994 Disney film “The Lion King.”
At the end of the video, all the jungle animals bow to the lion, depicted as Mr. Trump.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt defended the video, asking for the “fake outrage” to stop.
“This is from an internet meme video depicting President Trump as the King of the Jungle and Democrats as characters from ‘The Lion King,’” she said in a statement.
But Mr. Scott’s condemnation sparked a GOP uprising, with more and more Republicans breaking ranks from the Trump administration to speak their peace.
Sen. Susan Collins, Maine Republican, agreed with Mr. Scott, calling the post “appalling.”
GOP Sens. Roger Wicker of Mississippi and Pete Ricketts of Nebraska called on the president to take the video down and apologize.
“Even if this was a Lion King meme, a reasonable person sees the racist context to this. The White House should do what anyone does when they make a mistake: remove this and apologize,” Mr. Ricketts said.
Rep. Mike Lawler, New York Republican, said that the president’s post is “wrong and incredibly offensive — whether intentional or a mistake — and should be deleted immediately with an apology offered.”
Democratic critics called the post racist for depicting the only Black president and first lady as apes, a centuries-old trope.
Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat, summed it up on social media: “Racist. Vile. Abhorrent.”
“This is dangerous and degrades our country — where are Senate Republicans?” he said. “The President must immediately delete the post and apologize to Barack and Michelle Obama, two great Americans who make Donald Trump look like a small, envious man.”
A former chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, hoped that every elected official would join him in condemning this “vile, racist post.”
“Every day, the President of the United States calls on Americans to join him in being the worst versions of themselves,” the Missouri Democrat said.
• Mary McCue Bell can be reached at mbell@washingtontimes.com.
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