‘Please stop the fake outrage’: White House defends Trump’s post showing Obamas as monkeys

One of President Trump’s latest Truth Social videos includes former President Barack Obama and former first lady Michelle Obama depicted as apes.

The video was immediately met with criticism across the political aisle, with the White House responding that it was a reference to “The Lion King,” in which Mr. Trump is king of the jungle.

The 62-second video, originally from PatriotNewsOutlet.com, largely focuses on a voting fraud theory seeking to expose tampering with voting machines in the 2020 presidential election.

Mr. Trump has consistently claimed that the 2020 election was rigged against him — a theory dismissed by the courts.

But the last two seconds of the video are what sparked the ire of Democrats.

The snippet shows the Obamas’ heads and wide-open mouths superimposed on the bodies of monkeys, bounced along to the song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight,” an old standard that was included in the 1994 Disney film “The Lion King.”

The original AI video includes other prominent Democrats, such as former President Joseph R. Biden, former Vice President Kamala Harris, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

It also shows TV personality Whoopi Goldberg as a hippo and political activist Olivia Julianna as a pig.

The excerpt of the Obamas was taken from a video that previously circulated online, as it appears that the clip was an auto-play following the voter fraud video.

At the end of the video, all the jungle animals bow to the lion, shown as Mr. Trump.

Critics — including the president’s most prominent proponents and opponents — quickly condemned the clip as offensive and racist for depicting the only Black president and first lady as apes, a centuries-old trope.

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.

“Please stop the fake outrage and report on something today that actually matters to the American public,” she continued.

The only Black Republican in the Senate and a strong ally of Mr. Trump, Sen. Tim Scott, labeled the video “the most racist thing” he’s seen from this 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,” the South Carolina Republican said on social media.

Ben Rhodes, a former Obama White House official, said to let the video “haunt Trump and his racist followers that future Americans will embrace the Obamas as beloved figures while studying him as a stain on our history.”

Democrats called on Republicans to speak out against the president’s actions.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a widely recognized potential 2028 presidential contender and chief Trump hater, described the post as “Disgusting behavior by the President,” responding to the “Republicans against Trump” page.

“Every single Republican must denounce this. Now,” he said.

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, the highest-ranking Black Democrat in the lower chamber, who was seen in the original video, said that the Obamas “represent the best of this country.”

“Donald Trump is a vile, unhinged and malignant bottom feeder. Why are GOP leaders like John Thune continuing to stand by this sick individual? Every single Republican must immediately denounce Donald Trump’s disgusting bigotry,” the New Yorker continued.

The president is not new to critics dubbing him as racist, as his previous rhetoric includes claiming Ms. Harris “became” Black and peddling a conspiracy theory that Mr. Obama was born in Kenya and a forged birth certificate.