United States President Donald Trump has come under intense criticism after posting a video on his Truth Social platform that briefly depicted former president Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as monkeys.
The one-minute video, shared on Thursday, repeated unfounded claims that Dominion Voting Systems manipulated the 2020 election results. Near the end of the clip, the Obamas’ faces appeared superimposed on monkey bodies for about a second, as the song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” played.
The post had garnered thousands of likes by early Friday, but it also provoked swift condemnation from political figures and social media users who described the imagery as racist and inappropriate for a sitting president.
The office of California Governor Gavin Newsom reacted on X, stating: “Disgusting behaviour by the President. Every single Republican must denounce this. Now.”
Ben Rhodes, a former national security adviser and close associate of Obama, wrote: “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.”
Obama, the only Black president in U.S. history, supported Trump’s 2024 election rival, Kamala Harris, during the campaign.
The episode has renewed attention on Trump’s frequent use of hyper-realistic, AI-generated visuals on social media, often aimed at critics and political opponents.
In previous instances, Trump posted an AI-generated video showing Obama being arrested in the Oval Office and another clip portraying House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries wearing a fake moustache and sombrero - an image Jeffries described as racist.
Reactions on X were also swift and pointed.
An X user identified as African, @ali_naka, wrote: “When we told the Non-Thinkers in Kenyan that when Trump Insults Somalia, he is insulting an entire race, they thought we were imagining things. Obama has Kenyan Roots and this is what Trump thinks of him.”
The group Republicans Against Trump, @RpsAgainstTrump, posted: “Trump just posted a video on Truth Social that includes a racist image of Barack and Michelle Obama as monkeys. There’s no bottom.”
Richard Woodruff, @frontlinekit, wrote: “The F*CKING President of the United States of America just casually posted that all Black Americans are monkeys to him.
"First he fucks kids, then he shoots Americans in the street, now he calls the Obamas fucking monkeys. F*CK TRUMP. Do something TODAY, America!!!!”
Harry Sisson, @harryjsisson, also reacted: “Trump posted a video depicting Barack and Michelle Obama as monkeys. Incredibly racist and disgusting. Beneath the office of the presidency, like everything he does. Every American must condemn this.”
Mohamad Safa, @mhdksafa, added: “Welcome to America where president gets away with racism! President Trump just posted a video of President Obama and his wife portraying Black people as monkeys! Racism in its ugliest form!
"Trump didn't make America racist... He made the racists feel comfortable enough to show their racism in public.
"This type of speech, whether international or local, that fuels racism and hatred is unacceptable in our world today.
"Our world is not divided by race, color, gender, or religion. Our world is divided into wise people and fools. And fools divide themselves by race, color, gender, or religion.
"No one is born racist, they're taught racism, stop teaching it. Stop pretending your racism is patriotic.”
The controversy comes as Trump faces criticism over his administration’s rollback of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies since returning to office. Among his early actions was the termination of federal DEI programmes, including related initiatives within the military.
His stance against what he calls “woke” policies has reportedly resulted in the removal of books dealing with America’s history of racial discrimination from some military academy libraries.
Federal anti-discrimination efforts in the United States emerged from the civil rights movement of the 1960s, largely driven by Black Americans seeking equality and justice after centuries of slavery and systemic racism.
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