• President Donald Trump's Truth Social account shared a 62-second election conspiracy video that ends with AI-generated imagery of Barack and Michelle Obama depicted as apes
• White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt defended the post as an internet meme, while Democrats and some Republicans condemned it as overtly racist
• A Kentucky GOP official who shared what appears to be the same video in October 2025 faced a state party investigation, and Roseanne Barr lost her career over similar imagery in 2018

WASHINGTON, DC (TDR) — President Donald Trump's Truth Social account posted a video late Thursday that contained AI-generated imagery depicting former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as apes — a historically racist trope that drew swift condemnation from Democrats and raised pointed questions about accountability standards in American public life.

The 62-second clip, posted during a late-night spree of more than 60 Truth Social posts between 10:36 p.m. and 12:25 a.m., primarily pushes debunked claims about Dominion Voting Systems and the 2020 presidential election. In its final seconds, the video cuts to the Obamas' faces superimposed on the bodies of apes dancing in a jungle setting while the Tokens' "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" plays. A watermark from the X account @XERIAS_X, a Trump-supporting account with roughly 46,000 followers, overlays the clip. The video also carries a PatriotNewsOutlet.com watermark.

By early Friday morning, the video had accumulated several thousand likes. It remains live on the president's account.

White House Defends the Post

Karoline Leavitt, the White House Press Secretary, defended the video in a statement to Deadline.

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"This is 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 and report on something today that actually matters to the American public."

The White House did not respond to questions from multiple outlets about whether Trump personally reviewed the full video before sharing it or was aware of the Obama imagery appended to the election conspiracy content. Newsweek noted that given the bulk of the video centers on election claims, it is not clear if Trump watched the entire clip before posting it.

Bipartisan Backlash

California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat widely considered a potential 2028 presidential candidate, issued a direct challenge.

"Disgusting behavior by the President. Every single Republican must denounce this. Now."

Ben Rhodes, a former top national security advisor and close confidant to Barack Obama, framed the incident in historical terms.

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"Let it 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."

The Republicans Against Trump X account broke from the party line entirely.

"Trump just posted a video on Truth Social that includes a racist image of Barack and Michelle Obama as monkeys. There's no bottom."

Former Republican Congressman David Jolly, a Never Trump conservative, connected the post to what he described as a broader pattern within the GOP.

"Folks, this election is no longer about policy — it's about our national identity, about who we are."

Some Trump supporters, however, rallied behind the video on Truth Social and X. One wrote simply, "God bless you, Sir!" Others echoed Leavitt's framing that the video was harmless political humor rather than racial commentary.

The Accountability Double Standard

The timing and context of the post raise a question the White House defense does not address: what happens when the same imagery produces radically different consequences depending on who shares it.

In October 2025, Bobbie Coleman, chairwoman of the Hardin County Republican Party in Kentucky, posted what appears to be the same Lion King-themed video depicting the Obamas as apes. The Republican Party of Kentucky called the post "vile and reprehensible" and launched an investigation, pledging "the harshest action available." Coleman deleted the video and issued an apology, saying she had not considered its racist implications.

"I apologize for sharing the video and for amplifying offensive imagery of former President Obama. As someone who does not engage with racist tropes, I did not consider the underlying meaning that this video may have had."

In 2018, comedian and actress Roseanne Barr lost her hit ABC sitcom within hours of tweeting a comparison between former Obama advisor Valerie Jarrett and Planet of the Apes. ABC called her comments "abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values." Her talent agency dropped her the same day. Walt Disney Co. CEO Bob Iger said at the time there was no internal debate about the decision.

"There was only one thing to do here, and that was the right thing."

The practice of depicting Black people as apes dates to 18th-century pseudo-scientific racism used to justify the enslavement and dehumanization of Black people in Europe and North America. That history is why the imagery carries consequences for those who use it — consequences that, in this case, appear to scale inversely with political power.

A Pattern of Provocative AI Content

This is not the first time Trump's Truth Social account has shared racially charged AI content. During his second term, the president has ramped up his use of fabricated and manipulated visuals. Last year, he posted an AI-generated video showing Obama being arrested in the Oval Office and appearing behind bars in an orange jumpsuit. He also shared an AI clip depicting House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries — who is Black — wearing a fake mustache and a sombrero. Jeffries denounced the image as racist.

The latest video was posted during Black History Month, a detail critics were quick to note. Obama remains the only Black president in American history.

When a local party chair, a television star and the president of the United States all share the same type of racially charged imagery — but face dramatically different consequences — what does the disparity reveal about where accountability begins and where it ends in American politics?

Sources

This report was compiled using information from Newsweek's initial reporting on the video and follow-up coverage of the backlash, Deadline's reporting including the White House response, AFP's wire report via BSS News, Rolling Out's coverage of the incident and its historical context, Alternet's compilation of social media reactions, Unilad's reporting on public response, WAVE 3 News' coverage of the Kentucky GOP investigation, U.S. News & World Report's reporting on the Hardin County incident, Newsweek's profile of the Kentucky backlash, CNBC's 2018 reporting on the Roseanne Barr firing and ABC's cancellation of her show, and Yeni Safak's coverage of the backlash and timing during Black History Month.

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